850 French passengers sue Costa Cruises after contracting COVID-19 onboard

   August 10, 2020 ,   Accidents

Around 850 French passengers who were onboard a COVID-riddled cruise ship (turned away from many ports in March 2020) filed a collective suit in Paris with a total of 180 complaints, including manslaughter, against the company Costa Cruises.

The class action includes complaints from the families of 3 passengers who died of COVID-19. It accuses Costa of negligence and a variety of faults during the voyage on the liner Costa Magica.

From March 6 through 13 the vessel was refused to dock in most of the Caribbean islands Magica visited, including Barbados, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago.

In the absence of stopovers, the crew members encouraged the passengers to use the shops, spas, restaurants, and casino onboard the ship without sufficiently putting health measures in place or informing guests there were suspected infections, the complainants said in the suit.

The staff on the ship “were at fault, the passengers had almost no information and only found out from local media that there were cases on the ship,” Lawyer Philippe Courtois, representing the collective of 850 French passengers said.

Courtois criticized the “extremely light” virus measures on the cruise liner. 

Due to the pandemic, Costa Cruises (part of Carnival Corporation) suspended its trips globally until August 15, 2020.

For other Costa Magica accidents and incidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.