123milhas is the target of more than 16 thousand lawsuits – 08/31/2023 – Market

In the request for judicial recovery delivered to the 1st Business Court of Belo Horizonte, the 123milhas tourism platform claims to be the target of 16,645 lawsuits.

In all, the actions add up to BRL 232.2 million – a large part of the amount is due to requests for reimbursement and compensation from consumers, who felt aggrieved when buying packages and promotional tickets that were not delivered.

The data are contained in the details presented this Wednesday (30) to the Justice of Minas Gerais, one day after the company filed a request for judicial recovery.

“Due to the negative repercussion of the announcement of the suspension of the issuance of tickets and travel packages of the Promo123 Program, the applicants [123milhas, HotMilhas e holding Novum] have been suffering strong pressure from their creditors, who have already filed several lawsuits against 123 Milhas —a number that grows every day”, say the lawyers from the TWK and Bernardo Bicalho offices, in the petition.

According to a survey carried out by Sheet based on data sent by the company to the courts, the five largest lawsuits, which together add up to R$ 3.6 million, were filed by individuals. The biggest one asks for R$ 1.2 million.

But the survey also includes actions by legal entities. The highest value is from the Entrepreneurial Consortium of Catuaí Shopping Center Maringá, R$ 341 thousand.

There is also a lawsuit filed by Kijeme Travel Hoteis, owner of the La Torre resort in Porto Seguro (BA), in the amount of R$256,000.

In the petition to the Justice of Minas Gerais, 123milhas defends judicial recovery to protect itself from the avalanche of lawsuits. In Belo Horizonte alone, the company’s headquarters, four lawsuits were filed per hour.

“The reported postponement of the performance of products acquired via the Promo123 program (which was the only service whose delivery the applicants believed would be difficult to honor in the coming months) caused great commotion”, say the lawyers.

“With that, in fact, the credibility of these diminished, causing the breach of contracts and the rush of entities to file lawsuits with injunction requests for blockage of values, which can be fatal”, they say, referring to the offer of packages and promotional tickets, sold without a defined date.

Company adds almost 1,000 actions in the Labor Court

In the labor sphere, there are 914 creditors of 123milhas and HotMilhas, which together require R$ 16.7 million in compensation. The largest claim asks for BRL 267,000, while the smallest claims a refund of BRL 310.66.

In the petition, the company claims to have 417 workers, between the 123milhas and HotMilhas businesses.

On Monday (28), the company carried out a mass dismissal in the midst of a restructuring announcement: at least 200 workers were laid off, according to the report. Sheet, from the administrative, financial and technology areas. The company did not report the number of layoffs.

On the LinkedIn social network, many employees reported being surprised by the dismissal, while at the same time requesting new job opportunities.

One of the owners of 123milhas, Ramiro Julio Soares Madureira started the business of buying and selling airline miles in the mid-2000s.

At the end of 2016, he and his brother Augusto Julio launched 123milhas to maximize business, offering tickets up to 50% cheaper than the airlines’ list. In January of this year, 123milhas bought its main competitor, also from Minas Gerais, Maxmilhas.

For specialists in the tourism sector, the mistake made by 123milhas was to start selling “flexible” tickets and packages (without a defined date and, therefore, cheaper).

As already pointed out by Sheetthis business model is considered extremely risky, as it is not possible to predict ticket prices.