A travel agency successfully sued a tourist for actual expenses incurred after the traveler canceled a previously booked tour paid for with the company's own funds. The portal reported this. TRN Vladimir, Leading Lawyer at Bayborodin and Partners, said: Aleksandrovich Kazak
As it turns out, in November 2017, a tourist contacted a travel agency to purchase a two-week tour to Austria for New Year's. Ultimately, the traveler selected a package priced at almost 1.6 million rubles. Upon signing the "Tourism Product Sales Agreement" with the travel agency, the tourist paid for the tour product in part, depositing 270,000 rubles with the travel agent and agreeing on a final payment date. The funds received were transferred in full to the travel agency tour operator.
"The travel agent booked a tour product with a tour operator. Given the timing of the booking of the tour services and the dates of their provision, the tour operator obligated the travel agent to pay the cost of the tour product by a certain date. The full payment deadline for the tour operator was set before the agreed-upon date for full payment by the tourist to the travel agent," Mr. Kazak said, noting that, given the tourist's history of using the travel agency's services several times and paying for booked tours on time, the company's management decided to impose an additional payment of approximately 1.3 million rubles to prevent cancellation.
At the same time, within the agreed time, instead of payment, the agent received a notice of cancellation from the tourist and a demand for a refund of the previously paid amount.
Considering the New Year's tour was cancelled twenty days before departure, the tour operator returned the money minus the FPR, which exceeded 1 million rubles. Against this backdrop, the agency approached the tourist with a request to refund the money previously paid by the company for the tour. However, the tourist categorically refused to reimburse the travel agent for the actual expenses incurred, while also dropping his demand to recover the money paid to the travel agent. The case ultimately went to court.
The dispute was heard in court for seven hearings. Initially, the tourist attempted to avoid participating in the case, but later retained a lawyer to represent him in court.
"As a result, on August 5, following a court hearing, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow issued a ruling awarding the tourist the travel agent's expenses incurred in fulfilling its obligations under the 'Agreement for the Sale of a Tourist Product,' interest for the use of other people's funds, legal fees for the representative's services, and the state fee. The total amount of money awarded by the court to the travel agent from the tourist was approximately 830,000 rubles," the lawyer emphasized.
Source: trn-news.ru