EUGENE — A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Portland vacation rental management giant Vacasa this week, arguing that a rival’s claims of deceptive advertising didn’t meet the legal standard for false advertising.
Meredith Lodging, a vacation rental management company with offices in Waldport, Lincoln City and Bend, sued Vacasa in March alleging that the Portland company was trying to poach its clients with a “smear campaign” of deceptive phone calls.
Meredith maintains about 700 homes in vacation destinations on the Oregon coast and in central Oregon. Meredith alleged that Vacasa’s sales representatives were cold-calling vacation property owners, trying to get them to switch to Vacasa by disparaging the smaller firm.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane ruled Monday that Meredith had evidence of just 10 such phone calls. He said that’s too small a number, given the potential market, to demonstrate “widespread dissemination to the relevant consumer.”
So McShane dismissed the case, concluding that Meredith’s legal argument is “fatally flawed.”
Neither Vacasa nor Meredith immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday.
Vacasa is among Portland’s biggest and fastest-growing companies. It plans to go public late this year by merging with a publicly traded investment fund (a special purpose acquisition company, known as a SPAC) in a deal valuing the Portland business at $4.5 billion.
— Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian/OregonLive
