The travel industry is a part of the service sector and like other players in the service sector, such as retail stores, the industry is highly dependent on customer goodwill. It’s difficult most of the time to operate on wafer-thin margins but things can get tricky for the company’s image when you have to deal with lawsuit-happy customers.
Of course, for every lawsuit filed by a “wronged†customer there are genuine cases that need to be addressed and as prospective tourists it is important to keep tabs on what’s happening within the travel industry, especially when most of us only get a few weeks leave per annum. Stay informed with these 8 lawsuits that shed some light on the gamut of issues prevalent in the travel industry.
1. Anti-spam activist hit by the Can-Spam Act – Little did Mark Mumma, who runs Mummagraphics, realize that what he thought was an opportunity to do the world some good through his anti-spam activism would boomerang on him. When Mumma received unsolicited emails from Omega World Travel, he wanted to sue them and he let this be known on his website. However, what happened was that he ended up facing a $3.8 million defamation suit from Omega World Travel and its subsidiary Cruise.com.
Incredibly, the court sided with the spamming party. How did this happen? It happened because of the Can-Spam Act which according to Judge James Harvie Wilkinson III “addresses ‘spam’ as a serious and pervasive problem, but it does not impose liability at the mere drop of a hat.” According to Eric Goldman who blogs about the case, states that the power of the federal Can-Spam Act over state law “has to burst the bubble of a lot of antispam activists.”
2. Aloha Airlines v. Mesa Air Group in Hawaii State Court – Airlines are very susceptible to court cases. Just when an airline breathes a sigh of relief after settling a customer lawsuit outside the court, it is faced with another one, and this time it’s from a competitor. Well, whoever said that the travel business was easy? The Aloha Airlines Federal Court Complaint [PDF] against Mesa Air Group basically accuses Mesa of everything except murder. The list of grievances include predatory pricing, Tortious Interference With Contract, Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and FairDealing, Fraud, and more. Mesa Air Group’s potential liability could be up to $300 million.
3. Goofy Lawsuits Against Airlines – Rising operational costs and labor problems have made things difficult for the airline industry, especially since 7 / 11. As if this is not bad enough, airlines are forced to chase lawyers to defend themselves against wacky cases like the one in which U.S Airways was sued by a man who was snoozing and left on board the plane when it emptied in Birmingham, Alabama. When the man woke up, it was dark and apparently he did not know whether he was alive or dead. He sued for fright and other harms.
Air Canada faced a $500,000 lawsuit from a person who ordered 7-Up in French and ended up getting Sprite. Last heard the man had graciously offered to accept an apology and “small change†from Air Canada in lieu of dropping the lawsuit.
4. Travel Sites Sued for Tax Chicanery – Los Angeles, Georgia, and Atlanta have sued a clutch of travel sites, respected ones at that, for duping the state and hotels out of tens of millions of dollars. The sites include Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, Hotels amongst others. The lawsuits claim that these companies are collecting occupancy taxes in full from the customers and passing only a portion of it to the state.
5. Bourse des Vols vs. Google France – A travel-related lawsuit with a twist but one whose echoes are now being heard across industries. When the Court of Appeals in Versailles, France directed Google France to shell out $100,000 to tour operators Luteciel SARL and Viaticum SA the floodgates opened for a spate of lawsuits against Google regarding trademark issues. Google displayed ads by the competitors of these travel agencies under its AdWords program whenever the travel agencies’ names were searched for.
6. AMR and UAL Escape Price-fixing Allegations – Well, at least for the time being they have. American Airlines and United Airlines have managed to settle lawsuits regarding price-fixing allegations in the air-cargo industry. Considering that Lufthansa had to shell out $85 million to gain conditional immunity from similar lawsuits, American and United have been very lucky. US and EU officials have initiated a series of investigations into price-fixing related to surcharges for fuel, security and insurance by more than a dozen airlines.
7. Bloodsuckers in My Bed – You’re Sued! – Apparently, a single bedbug bite can trigger a lawsuit, and these critters do not discriminate between high-end and low-end hotels as many luxury hotels are finding out to their financial detriment. One such example was when Alison Trainer, an opera singer, sued Hilton Hotels for $6 million because she suffered over 150 bedbug bites that led to weight loss and a fear of sleeping in bed. In another case, a Chicago couple filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Nevele Hotel in Ellenville after Leslie Fox suffered a whopping 500 bites.
8. Disney Ride Too Extreme for Spanish Girl – According to the family of a 23 year old Spanish girl called Christina Moreno, the “Indiana Jones Adventure†ride at Disneyland California caused her to die from a brain aneurysm after she visited the park as part of her honeymoon trip. Cristina Moreno’s lawyers filed a case against Disney in 2001, claiming Disney had “pushed the envelope to the extreme” in designing the ride. The case reached it’s expected conclusion – an out-of-court settlement – a couple of days back. The ride is still a part of Adventureland’s attractions.