Our sex abuse lawyers represent victims of human trafficking in lawsuits against web companies, hotels, and other businesses that facilitate or profit from human sex trafficking. Our primary focus here is lawsuits against hotels that looked the other way. Victims of trafficking can bring civil lawsuits against these hotels and get significant financial compensation.
This post will explain what constitutes human trafficking for legal purposes and how certain businesses indirectly facilitate or profit from it. We will also discuss how human trafficking victims might be able to sue these businesses and get monetary compensation.
If you have been the victim of human trafficking, we are here to help you. Call our sex abuse lawyers today at 800-553-8082 or contact us online.
Human Sex Trafficking Lawsuits Update
December 11, 2024 – Sex Trafficking Can Come from Unlikely Sources
Three brothers, including prominent NYC real estate agents Tal and Oren Alexander, and their brother Alon, were arrested in Miami on federal charges of a decade-long conspiracy to drug, sexually assault, and rape dozens of women.
From 2010 to 2021, the Alexanders allegedly used their influence—Oren and Tal as luxury real estate agents and Alon as a private security firm executive—to lure victims to parties, events, and luxury trips where they were attacked. The indictment claims they relied on deception, drugs like GHB, and coercion, with women’s drinks being spiked before the assaults. The indictment details horrifying accounts, including physical restraint and ignoring victims’ pleas.
Federal prosecutors have charged the brothers with conspiracy and forcible sex trafficking, involving at least two victims and potentially dozens more. Authorities encourage additional victims to come forward, noting that earlier civil lawsuits also accused the brothers of sexual misconduct.
It’s easy to fall into stereotypes about what a sex trafficker looks like. But they come in all shapes, sizes, and disguises.
November 18, 2024 – Another Ohio Lawsuit
Ohio is certainly a hotbed for sex trafficking lawsuits. In a lawsuit filed on Friday, a survivor of human trafficking is suing the parent company of Motel 6, for its alleged role in facilitating her trafficking from 2012 to 2015.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the complaint alleges that G6 knowingly benefited from a trafficking operation that used its hotel properties to harbor and exploit the plaintiff for commercial sex acts.
The plaintiff, who was trafficked as a minor, claims that the hotel staff ignored obvious signs of trafficking, such as frequent male visitors, visible abuse, and high foot traffic to her room. The lawsuit accuses G6 of failing to implement or enforce anti-trafficking policies despite widespread industry knowledge of trafficking within hotels.
November 5, 2024 – New Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Against Marriott
In a new lawsuit filed in California, a woman identified as Jane Doe alleges that Marriott International and a Marriott franchisee facilitated her trafficking by knowingly allowing sex trafficking activities at their hotel in Palmdale, California.
The complaint, brought under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), claims the defendants knowingly benefitted financially from an environment that supported and concealed trafficking. The plaintiff asserts that her trafficker maintained control over her through coercion, physical violence, and manipulation, subjecting her to commercial sex acts repeatedly at the hotel over a period of years.
Her claims against Marriott is that despite visible signs of trafficking—such as constant use of cash payments, high foot traffic of unregistered male visitors, and her own apparent injuries and distressed appearance—the defendants took no actions to prevent her exploitation. Instead, hotel staff allegedly turned a blind eye and even provided the trafficker with rooms in private locations that minimized detection risks.
October 22, 2024 – Charges Against Former Abercrombie CEO
The former CEO of clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jeffries, has been arrested and charged with federal sex trafficking crimes. Jeffries and his boyfriend are being accused of sexually exploiting and abusing young men a various parties that they hosted. Jeffries allegedly lured young men to his parties by claiming he was going to make they Abercrombie models and they coerced them into taking drugs and engaging in sexual acts. In addition to the criminal charges, Jefferies is also being sued in a number of civil lawsuits.
October 7, 2024 – Sean Combs Lawsuits
Another 120 alleged victims of Sean “Diddy” Combs are expected to be filed shortly, mostly in New York, California, or Florida, where the alleged incidents took place at parties or auditions held in well-known venues, hotels, and private residences.
The lawsuits will target Combs and other potential defendants, including corporate entities. These cases date back as far as 1991. The plaintiffs include 60 men and 60 women, with 62% identifying as Black and 25 individuals being minors at the time of the alleged events.
Our law firm is reviewing these lawsuits.
September 24, 2024 – New Lawsuit Against Salesforce, Backpage and Hotels
A woman has filed a lawsuit seeking damages for the role various defendants, including Salesforce, Backpage.com, hotel chains, and individual traffickers, played in facilitating her sex trafficking. The complaint alleges that the now-24-year-old plaintiff, starting at age 15, was trafficked by her mother, advertised on Backpage.com, and exploited through hotel services.
She was raised by her mother, who was an alcoholic and user of methamphetamine and cocaine. In 2016, Plaintiff was relocated Brooksville, Florida. When she was in the 11th grade, her mother refused to enroll her in school. This young woman was tragically forced to provide sexual services in exchange for methadone and money. Her mother began listing the Plaintiff on Backpage.com for sexual services.
Backpage utilized its “Strip Term from Ad Filter” to remove incriminating words from ads, allowing the remaining content to be posted. Despite knowledge that these ads involved sex trafficking, the company continued to profit from them. Salesforce provided Backpage with software and support, facilitating its operations and growth. Even after public scrutiny and legal investigations, Salesforce maintained its business relationship with Backpage until the site was shut down in 2018. The complaint alleges Salesforce knowingly aided in Backpage’s sex trafficking activities.
Bravely, she now files this civil sex abuse lawsuit seeking compensation for the harm she suffered as a result of being sex trafficked and sold for sexual services on public platforms including by Backpage and Salesforce and through the hotel defendants (Quality Inn, Days Inn, Holiday Inn Suites, MGM, Wyndham, Choice Hotels, IHG).
The pain and suffering damages are immense in this case. The plaintiff is heroically struggling to reclaim her life but will forever bear the impact of her trafficking. She contracted multiple sexually transmitted diseases, including HPV, HSV-1, and HSV-2, and has undergone surgeries to treat these conditions. She will require ongoing treatment, monitoring, counseling, and possibly further surgeries due to the diseases contracted from the individuals she was forced to engage with during her trafficking.
September 21, 2024 – Uber Sex Abuse Lawsuits
Awareness of human sex trafficking has increased exponentially in the last five years. People are also more attuned to companies that turn a blind eye sexual assault risks when their employees are left alone with women. One piece of litigation we think will yield very high settlement amounts is the Uber sexual assault class action lawsuit. Early discovery in this litigation, consolidated in California, is already revealing how little Uber did to safeguard women.
September 20, 2024 – Suing the Police for Failing to Investigate
This is one of these “there ought to be a law” cases. In Campbell v. Simone, the sexually trafficked plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle, claiming the police were negligent in handling an investigation that allowed an abuser’s behavior to escalate.
The plaintiffs alleged that despite police knowing of reports that women were being sexually trafficked, the City failed to properly investigate the accused. This led to more and avoidable sexual abuse.
The women sued. The trial judge granted summary judgment in favor of the City, stating that Washington does not recognize a cause of action for negligent investigation, and the plaintiffs failed to establish breach of duty or causation. This ruling was affirmed on appeal.
On appeal, the plaintiffs argued that the City’s actions put them at increased risk, but the court upheld the ruling. The court found that there was no genuine issue of material fact concerning whether the City breached its duty or caused the plaintiffs’ injuries, as the alleged harm was too far removed from the City’s actions.
While the court acknowledged the plaintiffs’ distressing circumstances, this court said there restraints on legal recourse in Washington for claims of negligent investigation. Unfortunately, while the alleged failures in investigating abuse may have been an abuse of trust that cause these women to suffer more abuse, Washington law does not provide a cause of action for this type of negligence.
August 20, 2024 – Sex Trafficking Hotel Lawsuit in Virginia
The victim asserts that she was trafficked between 2012 and 2014 at the Super 8 and later Quality Inn hotel located in Chesapeake, Virginia. The plaintiff claims that her traffickers used these hotels as venues to exploit her, where she was forced to engage in commercial sex acts against her will.
The lawsuit contends that despite numerous “red flags” and signs of illegal activity, including the presence of numerous men visiting her room at odd hours, visible signs of physical abuse, and other clear indicators of trafficking, the hotel staff looked the other way and failed to intervene or report the activity.
The defendants are accused of knowingly benefiting from the illegal activities by continuing to rent rooms to the traffickers, providing them with a venue where they could operate with minimal risk of detection. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants’ actions—or complete lack thereof—enabled a continuous and profitable relationship between the hotel and the traffickers, thus constituting a violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).
The plaintiff seeks compensation for the severe harm she suffered due to the defendants’ failure to take appropriate measures to prevent or stop the trafficking, despite their actual or constructive knowledge of the ongoing criminal activities at their property.
June 10, 2024 – New Lawsuit Against Motel 6 in Colorado
A transgender female (“P.C.”) has filed a hotel sex trafficking lawsuit against D Fort Hotel, LLC, which operates Motel 6 in Fort Collins, CO, under the Federal William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA).
P.C. alleges that she was trafficked at the hotel in 2022, where she was induced by force, fraud, and coercion to engage in commercial sex acts. She claims that the hotel knowingly benefited financially from renting rooms used for trafficking, with payments made by her trafficker, who had direct interactions with hotel staff. The lawsuit contends that Motel 6 staff witnessed and observed clear signs of trafficking, such as constant foot traffic of sex buyers, impaired victims, and suspicious behavior, but failed to take action. She asserts that the hotel failed to implement adequate anti-trafficking policies and training, despite being aware of the widespread issue of trafficking within the hospitality industry.
June 4, 2024 – Venetian in Las Vegas Named in Trafficking Lawsuit
In a new sex trafficking lawsuit filed yesterday, a woman alleges that she was coerced into prostitution by a trafficker in Las Vegas in 2014. The plaintiff was repeatedly taken to several hotels owned by the defendants, including Aria Resort & Casino, Wynn Las Vegas, The Venetian Las Vegas, and New York-New York, where she was forced to engage in commercial sex acts.
These lawsuits all have the same theme: the hotel knew exactly what was going on but did not lift a finger to prevent it. This young woman says she showed visible signs of abuse and exploitation, including malnutrition, bruises, and injuries, while at these hotels. Despite these signs, the hotel staff did not ask questions, intervene, report the situation to authorities, or do what decent people do to make sure this at the time underaged girl was okay.
Her lawsuit argues that the hotels’ failure to implement and enforce anti-trafficking policies and procedures and their failure to adequately train staff on recognizing the signs of sex trafficking contributed to the plaintiff’s continued victimization. The lawsuit seeks to hold the defendants accountable for the needless suffering she endured.
May 20, 2024 – Red Roof Settlement
The corporate owners of two Red Roof Inn locations in Atlanta reached a confidential midtrial settlement with 11 women who alleged they were trafficked at these properties for years without intervention. The plaintiffs claimed that the hotel entities allowed and profited from trafficking activities, violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).
The trial would have been the first to hold a national hotel chain liable for enabling trafficking on its premises. These companies look to dismiss hotel sex trafficking lawsuits—and then settle them when that effort fails. This case is no exception.
What is great about these women is they pushed back on a confidentiality agreement with respect to the trauma they endured. They wanted more than just money. This settlement, unlike most of these settlements, allows the survivors to share their stories publicly.
May 9, 2024 – Lawsuit Alleges Sex Trafficking at Jamaica Hotel
In a new sex trafficking lawsuit, the plaintiff is suing Royal York Equities Corp., operating as JFK Inn, claiming damages under the federal William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 and New York law.
The complaint alleges that the defendants knowingly facilitated and profited from commercial sex trafficking at their hotel property in Jamaica, New York. It accuses the defendants of ignoring clear signs of trafficking and exploiting the situation for financial gain.
The allegations detail the harrowing experiences of a woman who was trafficked and exploited for commercial sex at a hotel in Jamaica, New York. After initially meeting her trafficker online when she was in college under the impression of a romantic relationship, she was manipulated and coerced into a situation of severe abuse and exploitation. This began when she was forced to engage in commercial sex at a New York City hotel and subsequently at another hotel managed by the defendants.
The complaint describes multiple instances of physical and psychological abuse, including being kept captive, repeated rape, and forced intoxication to maintain compliance. The plaintiff also endured severe mental distress, evidenced by an attempt to harm herself. Despite multiple audible and visible signs of distress and misconduct within the hotel premises, the staff and management failed to intervene or report the situation.
Police finally intervened after one incident that involved several days of continued abuse and exploitation, leading to the plaintiff’s arrest along with others involved.
The plaintiff asserts that she was trafficked by her abuser using the hotel’s facilities, where she was subjected to physical and sexual assaults, psychological torment, and false imprisonment. She claims the hotel operators failed in their duty to intervene or mitigate the trafficking activities, despite being aware of or should have been aware of the illegal activities. The lawsuit seeks damages for the injuries and trauma suffered as a result of the defendants’ alleged willful blindness and negligence in allowing the trafficking to occur on their property.
May 2, 2024 – Trafficking Case Dismissed in Michigan
The statute of limitations for sex trafficking cases significantly impacts the viability of lawsuits against responsible third parties, as highlighted by a recent Michigan sex abuse court decision.
In this case, a plaintiff accused multiple hotel operators, including Motel 6 and Marriott International, of facilitating her sex trafficking from 2003 to 2014.
Despite the detailed allegations, which included all the classic signs of trafficking like cash payments for rooms, frequent foot traffic, excessive use of condoms, and victims appearing fearful or physically abused, the court dismissed many of the claims. The dismissal was based on the ten-year statute of limitations, which did not cover the full period during which the alleged abuses occurred.
Only claims against one hotel – Fairfield Inn – were able to proceed because those claims were within the 10-year statute of limitations.
April 16, 2024 – Trafficking MDL Request Denied
An effort to create a nationwide sex trafficking MDL lawsuit was turned down last week. Plaintiffs in multiple lawsuits asked to consolidate 33 cases spread across five different judicial districts into one court.
All these cases involve allegations that various hotel properties across the country were venues where sex trafficking occurred, and the hotels are being sued for damages under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. The plaintiffs claim that these hotels should have been aware of the trafficking activities and are responsible for damages.
The idea behind moving all these cases to one district is to streamline the legal process, making it more efficient and consistent across all related cases.
Does this make some sense? Sure. But not all plaintiffs’ lawyers agreed. Some attorneys agree with the motion and support the idea of centralizing the cases in Ohio, while others suggest Massachusetts or specific MDLs (multi-district litigation) for certain hotel brands in Ohio. Other sex trafficking lawyers for victims believed the effort at consolidation was misguided in the first place.
Previously in 2020, a similar motion to centralize some of these cases was denied because the panel felt that the issues were too diverse and specific to individual situations, making a unified proceeding impractical. They believed that any common issues were overshadowed by the unique elements of each case, such as different hotels, trafficking scenarios, and local factors.
What had changed since the last effort at a class action? Nothing. The panel’s decision is influenced by the lack of common defendants and the complex, varied nature of the cases, suggesting that centralizing might not add the efficiency that is hoped for.
Our take is that there are pros and cons of both, but our sex abuse lawyers believe we will get higher settlement amounts for individual victims by not having a human sex trafficking class action lawsuit. So this loss, in our minds, is really a win for victims.
April 4, 2024 – A Loss (and a Settlement) in Ohio
In this case, the plaintiff, identified as S.C., brought a lawsuit under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act against five hotel franchisors, including Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Days Inn Worldwide, Choice Hotels International, Red Roof Inns, and Red Roof Franchising. S.C. alleged that she was trafficked for sex from 2012 to 2019 at various hotels operated by these franchisors but did not sue the individual hotels or her traffickers directly. Instead, her lawsuit targeted the hotel companies’ corporate parents and the franchisors themselves.
S.C. claimed that the signs of her trafficking were evident to the hotel employees, citing frequent linen changes, numerous used condoms, and a high volume of older male visitors to her room. She also mentioned having visible physical-abuse bruises. Despite these indicators, S.C. argued that the hotel franchisors and their corporate parents should be held liable for her trafficking because they had general knowledge of sex trafficking in the industry but did not take adequate steps to prevent it at their franchised locations.
The court, however, granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, ruling that S.C. did not provide sufficient evidence to show that the hotel franchisors had direct control over the franchisee-owned and operated hotels or that they had received specific notice of her trafficking. The court also rejected S.C.’s attempts to hold the defendants vicariously liable through theories of actual agency, apparent agency, joint employment, and joint venture, mainly due to the lack of evidence that the franchisors had the right or ability to control the day-to-day operations of the franchised hotels.
The judge is not saying the hotels cannot be held liable. A settlement was simultaneously announced against the hotels Six Continents Hotels, Inc., and Holiday Hospitality Franchising, LLC. But plaintiff lost additional bite of the settlement apple by losing these larger defendants.
This ruling emphasizes the legal challenge of establishing direct or vicarious liability of franchisors for the actions of their franchisees in cases involving criminal activities such as sex trafficking.
April 3, 2024 – Trafficking Lawsuit Filed Against Extended Stay America
A new sex trafficking lawsuit was filed on Monday involving a woman–we are calling K.R.M.–who is suing a group of companies associated with Extended Stay America hotels, alleging that they facilitated and benefited from her sex trafficking.
K.R.M.’s lawsuit claims she was subjected to sex trafficking, involving force, fraud, and coercion, for financial gain by her trafficker at an Extended Stay America hotel. The complaint asserts that the defendants knew or should have known about the trafficking due to evident signs and widespread issues of trafficking within the hotel industry, yet failed to take adequate steps – or any real steps – to prevent it.
This lawsuit highlights – as so many of these cases do – the dreadful role of the hotel industry in sex trafficking. Hotels are often used as venues for exploitation due to policies and practices that can either deter or facilitate such activities. The complaint details how traffickers exploit hotel policies and the lack of effective staff training on identifying and responding to trafficking.
April 1, 2024 – Trafficking Case Against Red Roof Inns Moves Forward
A federal judge in Ohio ruled that Red Roof Inns cannot escape sex trafficking lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley determined that the presented sufficient allegations that the hotel chain not only knowingly profited from the victimization but was also actively involved in a venture that violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).
One plaintiff details how she was trafficked across multiple Red Roof properties in states including New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and others. She alleges that the hotel staff ignored numerous red flags indicating trafficking activities, such as frequent linen changes, large numbers of used condoms, and evidence of physical abuse.
Moreover, it’s claimed that the traffickers exploited the hotel’s Wi-Fi to advertise this woman’s services. Despite these glaring signs, the staff reportedly failed to take action to ensure her safety, including an incident where guests heard this poor woman’s screams for help, but no police were called after a room inspection.
Judge Marbley’s ruling emphasized that the victims’ allegations met the TVPRA’s requirements for a lawsuit to proceed. Specifically, the judge highlighted that this sex trafficking lawsuit alleges that Red Roof Inns had at least constructive knowledge of the trafficking based on the overall circumstances, establishing a pattern of conduct or a tacit agreement with traffickers.
March 25, 2024 – Possible Class Action on Deck
On Thursday, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) is set to conduct oral arguments to decide if it should merge numerous sex trafficking lawsuits against leading hotel and motel chains into a single federal judicial process. This consolidation would bring the cases under the purview of a single judge for streamlined discovery and preliminary proceedings. A similar consolidation proposal was turned down by the panel in early 2020 when the judges concluded that different U.S. District Judges across various courts could manage the coordination of the litigation on their own. At that point, the litigation encompassed only about two dozen cases nationwide. But things have quickly changed. Human sex trafficking lawsuits have exploded in the last few years.
Currently, over 1,700 plaintiffs are seeking legal action against major hotel chains, such as Super 8, Red Roof, Hilton, Motel 6, and Best Western, accusing them of prioritizing profits over the safety of individuals subjected to sexual exploitation within their premises. The plaintiffs argue that these hotel operators are financially responsible for not seeing what they should have seen and stopping sex trafficking activities at their establishments. The plaintiffs argue that these hotel operators are financially responsible for not seeing what they should have saw and stopped sex trafficking activities at their establishments.
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What is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is conduct that involves the use of force, coercion, or deception to compel individuals into providing labor or services. It usually involves sexual exploitation.
Years ago, “human trafficking” primarily referred to the illegal transportation of individuals across borders for forced labor or sexual exploitation, often exemplified by smuggling immigrants into a country and subjecting them to work in the sex industry.
Today, the legal definition of human trafficking has broadened to encompass all forms of exploitation. It extends beyond border crossings and includes any situation where individuals are coerced into servitude through threats, fraud, or other means of manipulation.
Who Can Be a Victim of Human Trafficking?
One of the most pervasive misconceptions about human trafficking is that its victims are exclusively desperate individuals from impoverished, underdeveloped nations. While this demographic certainly remains vulnerable, the reality is far more complex and unsettling.
Human trafficking does not discriminate based on nationality, education, or socioeconomic status. Educated, affluent American citizens can just as easily become victims. Predators exploit emotional, psychological, and situational vulnerabilities, which are not limited to any particular class or country. Still, those on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum do face higher risks due to factors like unstable living conditions, lack of support systems, and limited access to resources that could help them escape dangerous situations.
This broader scope of trafficking highlights the need for increased awareness and prevention measures that address the diverse and often hidden nature of its victims. Whether through force, fraud, or coercion, traffickers target victims across the spectrum, and the myth that it only affects a certain demographic only serves to further obscure the full scope of the human sex trafficking problem.
Both genders can be victims of human trafficking, though women are disproportionately affected, constituting at least 70% of victims according to most estimates. Tragically, children are also frequent targets of this heinous crime.
How Human Trafficking Occurs
Human trafficking can come in a very wide arrange of shapes and forms. Coercive or deceptive transportation of victims out of their home country if the most common form of human trafficking. Sometimes this transportation happens through forcible abduction or kidnapping. More often, however, victims are induced into cooperation with promises of employment in a normal job or promises of other economic opportunities in exchange for relocating.
Whether through recruitment with false promises or forcible abduction, the victims are illegally smuggled into the United States. After they are brought into the country, the victims are extremely vulnerable because they are almost totally reliant on their captors for survival. This makes them susceptible to coercion. The traffickers use this vulnerability and reliance to push the victims into forced services, usually sexual in nature.
Industries Where Human Trafficking Occurs
Human trafficking is commonly associated with the sex industry, but the reality is that it extends well beyond that narrow scope. While the sex trade is undeniably one of the largest and most visible beneficiaries of human trafficking, there are many other industries that also capitalize on this modern form of slavery. These industries, often characterized by a high demand for low-cost or forced labor, provide traffickers with multiple avenues to exploit vulnerable individuals for profit. From backbreaking manual labor to more covert forms of exploitation, trafficking infiltrates various sectors of the economy.
- Sex Industry: A significant proportion of trafficking victims are coerced into the sex industry, where they are forced to work in prostitution, strip clubs, brothels, or even online pornography. The demand for illicit sex fuels a multibillion-dollar underground industry that profits from the exploitation of those trapped in horrifying conditions.
- Manual Labor: Many trafficking victims end up in grueling, hazardous jobs involving manual labor. They may be forced to work on construction sites, in factories, or as domestic workers under unscrupulous contractors who subject them to unsafe conditions, long hours, and little or no pay. Victims in these settings are often isolated from the public eye, making it difficult for them to seek help.
- Domestic Work: In addition to manual labor, many trafficking victims are forced into domestic servitude, working as live-in maids, nannies, or caretakers. Our lawyers have seen a number of cases where women were brought to this country under false pretenses. These victims are often targeted because they are isolated from society, which makes it difficult for them to escape or seek help.
- Agriculture: The agricultural sector is another major area where trafficking victims are exploited. Particularly in regions dependent on large seasonal labor pools, traffickers provide workers to farms and plantations where they are forced to toil in fields under extreme conditions. These individuals are often subjected to intense physical labor for little to no compensation, living in substandard housing, and kept in debt bondage to prevent them from escaping.
- Hospitality: Less obvious but still pervasive, the hospitality industry is another sector where human trafficking flourishes. Trafficking victims can be found working in hotels, resorts, and cleaning services, where they are compelled to perform long hours of physically demanding work for meager wages or none at all. Additionally, some hotels are complicit in trafficking operations by turning a blind eye to illegal activities happening on their premises, such as sexual exploitation.
Human Trafficking Victims Can File Civil Lawsuits
Until recently, victims of human trafficking had limited avenues for legal recourse. Prosecuting human traffickers in criminal courts was not only difficult but often futile due to the elusive and underground nature of trafficking operations, making it hard to gather sufficient evidence. Even when traffickers were brought to justice, criminal convictions provided little tangible benefit to the survivors, particularly in terms of financial support or aiding their recovery from the trauma they endured.
However, a significant shift has occurred in the legal landscape, offering new hope to trafficking survivors. In addition to criminal prosecution, victims now have the power to pursue civil lawsuits against commercial entities that either facilitated or profited from their exploitation.
This expansion of legal rights provides victims with an opportunity to hold businesses accountable for their role in trafficking, whether through direct involvement or turning a blind eye to the illicit activities taking place under their watch.
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) is a pivotal piece of legislation in this shift, enabling victims to bring civil claims against corporations, individuals, or any entity that knowingly benefited financially from trafficking.
The TVPRA is a transformative law that gives survivors of trafficking the power to take on not only traffickers but also corporations, hotels, websites, and any other entity that profited off their exploitation. This law has been a game-changer. It widens the scope of accountability to any business that knowingly lined its pockets from the suffering of trafficking victims. Now, survivors can seek compensation from industries that, whether through deliberate indifference or corporate blind spots, allowed exploitation to thrive on their platforms.
Compensation for Victims
These civil lawsuits offer victims a means to gain financial compensation for the harm they’ve suffered, covering everything from physical injuries to emotional trauma and lost wages. Beyond monetary damages, these lawsuits also serve to expose corporate complicity in trafficking, driving industries to reform practices, tighten safeguards, and enhance monitoring to avoid being implicated in future trafficking operations.
The growing trend of civil lawsuits, aided by both federal and state laws, reflects a broader recognition of the need to hold businesses accountable for their role in human trafficking. This development represents a crucial step forward in addressing not only the crime itself but also the systemic failures that allow trafficking to flourish. Now, trafficking survivors have a viable legal path to achieve justice, financial support, and a greater sense of closure, while simultaneously pressuring industries to adopt more rigorous anti-trafficking measures.
Trafficking Lawsuits Against Major Hotel Companies
The enactment of the TVPRA has sparked a wave of significant civil lawsuits initiated by victims of human trafficking. Over the past two years, trafficking survivors have filed suits nationwide against major hotel chains like Hilton, Marriott, and Wyndham. The new trafficking lawsuits alleged the hotel companies either knew or should have known about the presence of sex trafficking and exploitation on their premises and profited from these illicit activities. Recently, several of these lawsuits have resulted in substantial financial settlements.
Lawsuits targeting hotels for human trafficking typically arise when it is found that the hotel was complicit in or knowingly allowed trafficking to occur under its roof. These legal actions can be initiated by trafficking survivors or government agencies. They commonly allege that the hotel failed to implement adequate measures to prevent trafficking or neglected to report suspected cases to authorities. Additionally, hotels may be held liable for damages resulting from the harm inflicted upon trafficking victims, encompassing physical and emotional suffering, lost earnings, and other related losses.
To combat human trafficking effectively, hotels are expected to adopt comprehensive anti-trafficking policies and protocols. This includes training staff to recognize and report trafficking indicators, implementing monitoring systems to detect suspicious activities, and collaborating with law enforcement in trafficking investigations.
Moreover, hotels should have been familiar with resources like the End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT-USA) and its Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct, along with guidance from the Department of Homeland Security, which outline warning signs of human trafficking such as poor physical appearance, unusual surveillance, and unusual requests for housekeeping services without room entry. Failure to implement these measures may render hotels liable for their role in facilitating trafficking.
Human and Sex Trafficking Verdicts and Settlements
Settlement amounts in sex trafficking cases often reach staggering amounts, driven by the magnitude of harm inflicted and the often lifelong trauma endured by victims.
What pushes these awards so high? The main factor is the profound impact on victims’ lives—physical, emotional, financial, and psychological. When juries, who are the human heart of the justice system, hear these stories, they respond in a way that acknowledges the full weight of the victims’ suffering. These hotels know this and it makes them fear trial. This leads to large settlements.
Large settlements in sex trafficking lawsuits against hotels also serve to highlight and address the systemic issues that enable such crimes in the first place. By financially penalizing corporations and businesses for their negligence or direct involvement in human trafficking, the legal system not only provides restitution to the victims but also forces industries to implement stringent internal policies and training programs. Hotels hate the publicity of these lawsuits, they hate the cost of defending and paying settlements…they hate all of it.
So these lawsuits shine a public spotlight on the perpetrators and the industries that shelter them, leading to reforms and greater accountability within those sectors. They act as a warning shot to any company tempted to prioritize profit over safety. These lawsuits make clear that complicity in trafficking comes with a steep price tag—one that echoes in both the boardroom and the court of public opinion. In this way, large payouts are about more than one case.
Below are summaries of verdicts and reported settlements from lawsuits asserting allegations of human trafficking and/or sex trafficking. Keep in mind, too, that most of these lawsuits against major hotel chains settle confidentially out-of-court.
- $24.5 Million Arbitration Award (Pennsylvania 2024): An arbitrator awarded $24.5 million to two women who were forced into prostitution as teenagers at a Philadelphia motel. The award is to be paid by Ramara Inc., the owner of the property housing the North American Motor Inns. The women, identified by their initials in court documents, were subjected to human trafficking at the ages of 16 and 17 and faced threats and severe abuse. Ramara had argued it lacked control over the property’s activities, but the arbitrator ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
- $37.5 Million Verdict (Pennsylvania 2024): This is another Philadelphia hotel sex trafficking arbitration award. In this case, arbitrator (the same arbitrator) awarded $37.5 million to three women who were sex trafficked as minors at a West Philadelphia hotel owned by North American Motor Inns and Ramara Inc. The arbitration resulted in individual awards of $13 million, $12.5 million, and $12 million. The women filed suit alleging they were trafficked for commercial sex as teenagers and that the hotel should have been aware of the illegal activity. Defendants argued they were out-of-possession landlords with no duty of care. That argument clearly did not fly.
- $3,850,000 Verdict (New York 2022): The plaintiffs were several women working as models in New York City who were reportedly were lured by defendants Howard Rubin and Jennifer Powers based on representations of payments for supposed companionship and photo shoots. Rubin allegedly initially met them at hotel rooms but later at an apartment which had a room converted to a BDSM dungeon. The plaintiffs would first meet with Powers, who would have them sign a purported non-disclosure agreement, and then would meet with Rubin. Rubin allegedly would get them intoxicated or provide them narcotics and then beat and rape them. The plaintiffs asserted sex trafficking in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1591(a), assault, battery, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
- $300,000 Settlement (Illinois 2022): The plaintiff alleged that she was repeatedly sexually abused by a former Chicago police office who solicited sex from her when she was only 14 years old. The officers was was charged with child pornography and sex trafficking of the plaintiff and three other minor girls, pled guilty to four counts of sex trafficking underage girls. The plaintiff sued the city of Chicago.
- $1,250,000 Settlement (Washington 2019): The plaintiff claimed that she was hired by defendants as a 15-year-old to perform nude dancing at their club. The plaintiff claimed that defendants knew she was underage but still subjected her to sexual exploitation, abuse and emotional damage. Plaintiff sought economic and non-economic damages, punitive damages, and brought claims for sex trafficking, emotional distress, and negligence.
- $3,000,000 Settlement (Virginia 2018): The plaintiff alleged that a U.S. diplomat and her husband (posted at the embassy in Yemen) forced her into working for them 80 to 95 hours each week as their live-in domestic worker by repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting her, isolating her from the outside world, and holding her captive as their sex slave, in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
- $768,000 Verdict (California 2017): The plaintiff allegedly came to the U.S. to work for the defendants in their house. She claimed that the defendants then confiscated her passport and held her against her will at their residence. She filed a lawsuit alleging false imprisonment and human trafficking. The plaintiff claimed that the defendants forced her to work 10-to-16 hour days without pay, and that while they did not physically restrain her, they made her fear seeking help by telling her that if she went outside she would be raped, killed, arrested and her organs harvested.
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