Much is currently being written about the legal consequences of corona-related travel cancellations. One of these articles recently read:
“If there is a ban on staying overnight in a travel area, accommodation will be impossible and the accommodation will have to reimburse you for the deposit you have paid”.
Well and good, one might say. But unfortunately also a bit naive:
1. Applicable Law
Let’s assume you have your accommodation or other travel service booked directly with a local foreign provider. For example, a multi-day junk trip through the Vietnamese Halong Bay or a camel trip through the Moroccan desert, with an overnight stay in a Gaddafi-style comfort tent.
Do you really believe yourself the Vietnamese or Moroccan provider agrees to assess your cancellation requests according to German law?
Probably not. For travel bookings made directly with an accommodation in Thailand, Vietnam, Morocco or Myanmar or anywhere else, the local law applies. So you will probably get no further under German law.
And unfortunately “any EU package travel directive” does not count there either.
2. Competent courts
And then the question still arises as to how you intend to enforce your claim in practice. To sue the Vietnamese accommodation in a German court? Not very promising.
The German courts are not responsible for lawsuits against accommodation (or generally a provider / service provider) abroad. You have to file a lawsuit in front of a court at the place of accommodation.
3. Enforcement abroad
Even if you had won a judgment in Germany, how do you intend to enforce it in Thailand or Myanmar? German judgments apply in Germany and, due to the European Enforcement Convention (EuGVVO), also in Europe, but not, for example, in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam or Morocco. Not even in the US, by the way.
Instead, if there is one there, you would have to initiate recognition and enforcement proceedings on site, with a local lawyer, of course.
Is that “unfair”? No, Germany does not automatically enforce a judgment from outside Europe either. If you have not paid for your travel service on site, you do not have to worry that the bailiff will be standing on your doorstep with a Thai enforcement order and want to seize the television.
4. Conclusion
If you have booked accommodation outside of Europe directly and have already paid something down, that is Legally very difficult to enforce a repayment claim. Not to mention the practical problems, the effort and the costs.
As is so often the case in international legal transactions, one can only advise against making unilateral advance payments and, for example, making down payments. Pay only on site, ideally after You have used the service. Otherwise all you can hope for is that your foreign travel agent will be fair and accommodating.
Dr. Wolfgang Gottwald
Lawyer
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