RIVER COUNTESS BV AND OTHERS V MSC CRUISE MANAGEMENT (UK) LTD

[2021] EWHC 2652 (Admlty), Queen's Bench Division, Admiralty Court, Mr Justice Andrew Baker, 4 October 2021

Collision – Cruise ships – Applicable law – Responsibility agreed – Recoverability of non-physical losses under Italian law

This litigation followed the collision between the defendant demise charterer’s vessel MSC Opera and the claimants’ vessel River Countess in the Giudecca Canal in Venice on 2 June 2019. River Countess was berthed at the time and the defendant had accepted 100 per cent responsibility for the collision. The three claimants, being the registered owner, a demise charterer and a tour operator under a cruise charter (akin to a time charter), had suffered losses in the form of lost revenue and earnings.