Cruise lines fuel surcharge heads to court

As predicted, outraged cruisers have turned to court to fight the “fuel surcharges” implemented late last year by the cruise lines (check out the updated and complete list of all these surcharges on my website).

Earlier this week, Florida attorney Harley Tropin filed a class action suit in Miami court on behalf of a New York client alleging that several of the best cruise lines "agreed to act in concert with one another by imposing these fuel surcharges based on purported increased fuel costs. In doing so, defendants sought to opportunistically leverage their cartel power to charge their customers higher fuel surcharges." Notice of the lawsuit was published in the Tampa Bay Business Journal on February 14.

More details on the suit can be found in Chris Elliott’s blog.

The suit seems to apply only to those who purchased tickets after January 1. Whether this also will affect those who were notified after booking their cruises they owed additional money is unclear.

While the suit names only the Carnival Corporation & PLC, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, Norwegian Cruise Line, Ambassadors International (Windstar and Majestic America), Silversea Cruises, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises in addition to the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), it also mentions several unnamed co-conspirators – “On information and belief, certain cruise line operators, trade groups and/or other entities, unnamed herein…”

As the case evolves, it will be interesting to learn whether these unnamed co-conspirators are additional cruise lines, or perhaps the travel agents who sent out letters announcing the increase to their already-booked clients and collected the additional funds in exchange for a $10 “administrative fee.”