Tourism Law in Europe

(as defined by the IMF) at the date of judgment. Interest and costs (determined by the laws of the court exercising jurisdiction) are recoverable in addition to damages (Article 10). Article 13 provides, however, that the carrier cannot rely on this damages cap if it is proved that the damage resulted from an act or omission of the carrier done with the intent to cause such damage, or recklessly and with knowledge that such damage would probably result. Article 3 refers to an ‘incident’ rather than an ‘accident’. It remains a moot point as to whether this extends liability beyond injury caused by tangible external factors to pre- existing, internal physical conditions such as a heart attacks or (as in the case of carriage by air) Deep Vein Thrombosis; the courts of the UK have not been called upon to determine the issue. Article 14 of the Convention provides: “ No action for damages for the death of or personal injury to a passenger, or for the loss of or damage to luggage, shall be brought against a carrier or performing carrier otherwise than in accordance with this Convention ”. The equivalent provision in the Montreal Convention was held by the House of Lords (the forerunner to the Supreme Court) in Sidhu v British Airways [1997] 2 WLR 26 to mean that, where the Convention applied, no additional or parallel remedy was available to the Claimant whether at common law ‘or otherwise’. Since there is no material difference between the two Conventions in this regard, Article 14 of the Athens Convention is taken by UK lawyers to have the same effect. The regimes are both exclusive in their application. When the Athens Convention was originally ratified in 1974, the travel law landscape looked very different. The ‘package holiday’ was still in its infancy, and the desire of the European Parliament for harmonisation and uniformity was not so strongly felt as it is today. When the Package Travel Regulations 1992 came into force, they created a regime which was unashamedly consumer-oriented and which did not, and does not, sit easily alongside the restrictive, pragmatic provisions of the Convention. What, then, is the legal position where a package holiday includes carriage by sea which is otherwise covered by the Athens Convention? If, for example a Claimant is injured on board the vessel, and such injury is caused by the negligence of the carrier or its employees, can he or she bring a claim pursuant to Regulation 15 of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, unfettered by the limitations imposed by the Convention? The position