Italian consumer law regarding refunds of accommodation due to corona virus travel ban

Upvote:1

(not a lawyer)

I would consider it a loss and an unfortunate lesson learned (pay by CC, have a contract, use a recognized booking agent with appropriate contract terms for refund...)

The question you need to ask yourself is, even if there are consumer laws regarding "act of god" epidemic like that.

How much money and time (remember time is money) and stress are you willing to spend trying to resolve the issue.

Let's say there is a law regarding this, and you ask the agent for a refund and he says "no"; what are your options ? get a local lawyer ? how much does that cost and how long will it take to resolve this ?

BTW, I expect a lot of booking agents are now rewriting all of their contracts and added exclusions for refund in case of pandemics.

Upvote:1

The counterpart (you didn't mention travel agent or hotel) was correct.

With Decree 9 of 2nd March 2020, article 28, the Italian government ordered airlines, raillines and ferrylines and in general touristic operators to issue vouchers than refunds for canceled bookings. A lot of controversy originated from this decision as it is blatantly against the EU/261 directive.

While the antitrust authority investigates on the matter, the vouchers are perfectly lawful.

Your best option is to contact any of the Consumer Rights associations in Italy in case they file a class action that you can join. Going to small claims court is extremely slow and time-consuming in the pandemic era.

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