A lawsuit has been filed and is seeking class action status against several cruise lines and associations for allegedly fixing the price of fares. The lawsuit names Carnival Corporation, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Oceania Cruises, Silversea Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ambassadors International, the Florida Cruise Association, and others as defendants and claims the cruise lines coordinated with each other to set unreasonably high fees, and thereby are guilty of fixing prices. The lawsuit was filed in Miami on behalf of passengers who paid the recently adopted fuel surcharge fees. It alleges antitrust violations and seeks triple damages, costs, and attorneys' fees.
Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corp. announced a $5 a guest fuel charge in November 2007 and began applying it on voyages starting Feb. 1, 2008. Oceania Cruises also implemented a fuel surcharge of $7 per person, per day. Windstar Cruises and Majestic America Line raised fuel fees to $8.50 per person per day.
The complaint states that the "defendants agreed to act in concert with one another by imposing these fuel surcharges based on purported increased fuel costs, and in doing so, defendants sought to opportunistically leverage their cartel power to charge their customers higher fuel surcharges."
