Decision ID: 001584

In October 2004 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee noted that in September 2004 the Commercial Court in Saintes had rendered a judgement in respect of a claim by the owner of a restaurant in Barzan in the Department of Charente-Maritime for losses allegedly sustained in 2000 as a result of the incident. It was noted that the claim had been rejected by the Fund on the grounds that it did not fulfil the admissibility criteria for claims relating to pure economic loss, in particular the requirement of geographic proximity between the claimants business and the contamination, the restaurant being located more than 130 km from the nearest polluted beach. The Committee noted that the Court had held that it was appropriate to apply the Fund’s criteria for the interpretation of the 1992 Conventions and that the claimant had not provided any evidence supporting the allegation that there was a link of causation between the reduction in the number of tourists visiting the area where the restaurant was located and the contamination resulting from the incident. The Committee noted that the Court had rejected the claim, since there was neither a reasonable degree of proximity nor a sufficient link of causation between the incident and the alleged loss.

Date: 30.09.2004
Category: Pure economic loss (tourism)
Subjects: Admissibility criteria, Link of causation between the loss and the contamination