Cruise and Ferry Passenger Claims Lawyer in France: Athens Convention, Delay and Package Travel

In February 2026, a passenger on the Marseille to Bastia service walks down to the car deck in a heavy swell, slips on a streaming alleyway and fractures his femoral neck. Three months later the company is relying on a clause in its general conditions and nobody has yet opened the Athens Convention. That same month, a couple from Nantes learn that their Mediterranean cruise is cancelled two days before embarkation: the organiser refunds the package price and refuses any further compensation. Two files, two regimes, two time limits.

The firm acts for ferry companies and cruise operators, for injured passengers and their families, for insurers and P&I clubs, and for travel agents and tour organisers sued under the package travel rules. This page deals with personal injury, delay, baggage, the cruise sold as a package, and jurisdiction. It extends the firm’s pillar page on maritime law.

The texts that govern the contract of carriage of passengers

The foundation is the Athens Convention of 1974 relating to the carriage of passengers and their luggage by sea, as amended by the 2002 Protocol, which entered into force on 23 April 2014. Within the European Union the text applies through Regulation (EC) No 392/2009 of 23 April 2009, which reproduces the consolidated version in its Annex I and extends it beyond international traffic alone. Since 31 December 2012 that regulation governs international carriage and, within a member state, carriage performed on board class A and class B ships within the meaning of the directive on safety rules for passenger ships. Member states were allowed to defer its application to class B ships until 31 December 2018, and they may also extend it to all domestic voyages.

One area remains outside the regulation: domestic links operated by smaller units, harbour shuttles, passenger boats, short island services. There the contract of carriage falls under Articles L. 5421-1 to L. 5421-13 of the French Transport Code. Annex II to the 2009 regulation further reproduces the reservation and the guidelines adopted by the International Maritime Organization in 2006, which cap insurers’ cover for damage arising from acts of terrorism. Finally, the general law of liability and the French Consumer Code continue to police unfair terms in general conditions. Knowing which of those four layers applies decides the rest of the case. That is always where we start.

Passenger accident, injury, death

Everything turns on one question of characterisation: is the accident a “shipping incident”? Article 3 of the Athens Convention, in the version annexed to the 2009 regulation, gives a closed list: shipwreck, capsizing, collision or stranding of the ship, explosion or fire on board, defect in the ship. Where the personal injury arises from one of those events, the carrier’s liability is strict up to 250,000 SDR per passenger per incident, and it escapes only by proving that the damage results from an act of war, an insurrection, an exceptional and irresistible natural phenomenon, or the intentional act of a third party. Above that first tier and up to 400,000 SDR, the carrier’s fault is presumed: it is for the carrier to show that it committed neither fault nor neglect.

Outside a shipping incident the mechanism reverses. A fall in an alleyway, food poisoning at the buffet, an assault by another passenger all fall under proven fault: the passenger must establish the fault or neglect of the carrier, of its servants or of its agents acting within the scope of their employment. That boundary is the real battleground of passenger claims, and it has to be worked from the first days, medical log, maintenance records for the deck coverings, closed circuit television recordings whose retention on board rarely exceeds a few weeks. The recoverable heads of loss, for their part, are determined by the law applicable to the merits: before a French court, the usual nomenclature of personal injury applies. The conventional limit frames the amount; it does not dictate the assessment.

Excursions, embarkation, performing carrier

The convention does not protect the passenger everywhere or at all times. Article 1, paragraph 8, defines “carriage” as the period during which the passenger and his cabin luggage are on board, in the course of embarkation or disembarkation, together with water transport from land to the ship where the cost is included in the fare. Time spent in a maritime station or on a terminal is excluded. The passenger who falls on the gangway is within the convention; the one who falls in the terminal hall is outside it and falls back on the general law. The distinction looks formalistic. It changes the burden of proof, the limit and the time bar.

The shore excursion sold by the cruise operator raises a neighbouring question. Performed by a local supplier, it is not carriage by sea within the meaning of Athens; bought together with the cruise, it is a service included in the package, for which the organiser answers on that footing. Article 4 of the convention adds a key that is often forgotten: where performance is entrusted to a performing carrier, the contracting carrier remains liable for the whole of the voyage, and the two are jointly and severally liable for damage occurring during the part performed by the performing carrier. The passenger does not have to unravel the group structure in order to choose a defendant: he sues both.

Delay and cancellation of the crossing

Delay is not governed by Athens but by Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010 of 24 November 2010 on the rights of passengers travelling by sea, applicable since 18 December 2012. It requires carriers to inform passengers and then to assist them: snacks and meals in reasonable relation to the waiting time and, where a night away becomes necessary, free accommodation which Article 17 allows the carrier to limit to 80 euros per night and to three nights. Where there is a cancellation or a departure delay of more than ninety minutes, Article 18 opens a choice: re-routing at no extra cost, or reimbursement of the ticket within seven days.

Article 19 adds compensation for delay in arrival, 25 per cent of the ticket price beyond a threshold that varies with the scheduled duration of the voyage, from one hour for a crossing of up to four hours to six hours for a voyage of more than one day, and 50 per cent where the delay exceeds twice that threshold. Article 20 disapplies those rights where the passenger travels on an open ticket or where the delay is attributable to him; it disapplies compensation alone in the case of weather conditions endangering the safe operation of the ship, or of extraordinary and unavoidable circumstances. The Court of Justice of the European Union refused to place the late delivery of a new ship by the yard in that category (2 September 2021, Irish Ferries, C-570/19) and held that the regulation applies to a cancellation notified several weeks before departure. Cruises fall within the regulation where the port of embarkation is situated in the European Union (Article 2, paragraph 1, point c), but Articles 18 and 19 do not apply to them: the delayed cruise passenger acts on package travel ground. Each member state designates a national enforcement body.

Baggage, vehicles and valuables

The Athens Convention limits are low: 2,250 SDR per passenger for cabin luggage, 12,700 SDR per vehicle including the luggage carried in it, and 3,375 SDR per passenger for other luggage. Article 8, paragraph 4, further allows a contractual deductible which may not exceed 330 SDR for damage to a vehicle and 149 SDR per passenger for other luggage; most general conditions apply it, and modest damage on the car deck is absorbed by it. As for cash, negotiable securities, gold, jewellery and works of art, Article 5 exonerates the carrier, unless those items have been deposited with it for safe keeping, in which case it answers for them up to the limit fixed by the convention.

The trap is not the limit, it is the calendar. Article 15 imposes written notice: for apparent damage to cabin luggage, before or at the time of disembarkation; for other luggage, at the time of its redelivery; for damage that is not apparent, or for loss, within fifteen days thereafter. Once that period has passed, the passenger who has written nothing is presumed to have received his luggage undamaged, a rebuttable presumption but a formidable one to fight. A cruise passenger whose suitcase never reaches the ship suffers a loss that exceeds the value of the contents: he has paid for a cruise he will spend in his travelling clothes. The baggage limit measures none of that; it is the reduction of the package price that takes over. Claiming both is the reflex that changes the figure.

Cruises and package travel

A cruise is almost never a simple contract of carriage. Transport, accommodation, catering and excursions are sold together, which makes it a package within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of 25 November 2015, applicable since 1 January 2018. The organiser, and in some cases the retailer, is then strictly liable for the proper performance of all the services included in the contract, under Article L. 211-16 of the French Tourism Code, whether it performs them itself or entrusts them to suppliers. The traveller does not have to prove fault; he proves a lack of conformity. A cancelled port of call, a downgraded cabin, a cancelled excursion: each of those facts gives rise to a price reduction and, where appropriate, to compensation.

Limitation follows. Article L. 211-17 of the French Tourism Code, which transposes Article 14 of the directive, allows the organiser to invoke the limitations of the international conventions binding the European Union, including the Athens Convention, and permits a contractual limitation for damage other than personal injury provided it does not fall below three times the total price of the package. The injured passenger therefore remains confined within the 400,000 SDR of Athens, while the merely disappointed passenger has a floor indexed on the price he paid. Article L. 211-14 allows him to terminate the contract without charge before departure where unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity significantly affect the performance of the package; he recovers the sums paid, without further compensation. Whom to sue? The cruise operator as carrier, the organiser and, where it sold in its own name, the retailer.

Time bars and deadlines

An action for damages for personal injury or for damage to luggage is time barred after two years under Article 16 of the Athens Convention. The starting point varies: the date of disembarkation for personal injury, the date when disembarkation should have taken place where it did not, and, in the case of death occurring after disembarkation, the date of death, subject to a maximum of three years from disembarkation. On top of that period there is a long stop: no action may be brought after five years from disembarkation, or three years from the date on which the claimant knew or ought to have known of the injury, whichever is the shorter. The law of the forum governs suspension and interruption, but it cannot revive a period already extinguished by that long stop.

For domestic carriage falling outside the 2009 regulation, an action in liability against the carrier is time barred after two years (Article L. 5421-6 of the French Transport Code) and actions relating to luggage after one year (Article L. 5421-12). For an action founded on a travel package, Law No 2023-171 of 9 March 2023 settled what had not been settled: since 7 June 2023, paragraph VI of Article L. 211-17 of the French Tourism Code confines claims within a two year period, subject to the ten year period of Article 2226 of the French Civil Code for personal injury. The injured traveller therefore keeps a long period against the organiser while he has only two years against the carrier: the rule of conduct remains to sue everyone within two years, and to treat the ten year period only as a second chance.

Limits, compulsory insurance and direct action

The two tiers of 250,000 SDR and 400,000 SDR are not an absolute ceiling. Article 7, paragraph 2, of the convention allows each state party to fix, by express provisions of its national law, a higher limit for carriers subject to its jurisdiction. Article 13 deprives the carrier of any limitation where the damage results from an act or omission committed with intent to cause it, or committed recklessly and with knowledge that such damage would probably result. That forfeiture is argued on documented failings.

Article 4 bis requires, for every ship licensed to carry more than twelve passengers, insurance or other financial security of at least 250,000 SDR per passenger per incident, evidenced by a certificate that must be carried on board and that is the first document to call for. That certificate opens a direct action against the insurer, who may raise only the defences available to the carrier, the limit of cover and the wilful misconduct of the assured, insolvency excluded. Regulation (EC) No 392/2009 adds an emergency mechanism: its Article 6 requires the carrier, in the event of death or personal injury caused by a shipping incident, to make within fifteen days of the identification of the person entitled to damages an advance payment of at least 21,000 euros in the event of death, without any admission of liability. Above all that hangs the shipowner’s global limitation: the London Convention of 1976 and Article L. 5121-5 of the French Transport Code set, for passengers’ claims, a fund equal to 175,000 SDR multiplied by the number of passengers the ship is authorised to carry.

Jurisdiction, evidence and procedure

Article 17 of the Athens Convention offers the claimant a choice between several courts: that of the permanent residence or principal place of business of the defendant, that of the place of departure or of destination stipulated in the contract, that of the state of the claimant’s domicile where the defendant has a place of business there and is subject to jurisdiction there, and that of the state where the contract was made, on the same condition. Article 17 bis governs the recognition and enforcement of judgments between states parties. Jurisdiction clauses concluded before the incident giving rise to the damage are of no effect.

This is the blind spot in the general conditions of the large cruise operators, which readily point to the courts of Miami, Genoa or London. The Brussels I bis Regulation excludes contracts of transport in principle from its protective consumer regime, but its Articles 17 to 19 preserve the contract which, for an inclusive price, combines travel and accommodation: a cruise sold as a package to a passenger domiciled in France is therefore, in our view, subject to the court of that passenger’s domicile, however freely the foreign clause was accepted online with a single click. The evidence, for its part, is built in the days that follow: the ship doctor’s report, the report to the safety officer, a copy of the log book, closed circuit television requested in writing before it is overwritten, the contact details of witnesses. Where the same casualty strikes dozens of passengers, a group action and the consolidation of claims before a single court become real options, and the company has every interest in treating the litigation as a whole rather than file by file.

How the firm works

For passengers and families, the firm characterises the accident, calls for the insurance certificate and the advance payment under Article 6 of the 2009 regulation, organises the medical expert examination and exercises the direct action against the insurer. For ferry companies, cruise operators, insurers and P&I clubs, it builds the defence on the characterisation of the event, the burden of proof, the limits and the deductibles, and coordinates strategy where the casualty is collective. For travel agents and organisers, it handles the interplay between the strict liability of the French Tourism Code and the conventional limitations.

Based in Paris, the firm acts in every French port, in mainland France and overseas, before the commercial and civil courts of the coast and before the Paris Maritime Arbitration Chamber, and works in English with P&I clubs, insurers and foreign counsel. These matters often cross the liability of the sea carrier of goods, liability in the event of a collision and salvage and assistance operations.

Analyses and guides

For accidents on board pleasure craft, our English-language analysis of insurance refusal, limitation and abandonment on pleasure craft examines how cover and liability are shared once something goes wrong on board, between the owner, the crew and the guests. The conduct of the proceedings and the expert examination are dealt with on our page on maritime litigation, cover of liabilities and the relationship with P&I clubs on our page on marine insurance. Our guide to maritime contracts returns to the drafting of general conditions of carriage and of jurisdiction clauses.

Frequently asked questions

I was injured falling down a ferry staircase, who has to pay?

A fall on a staircase is not a “shipping incident” within the meaning of Article 3 of the Athens Convention, which covers only shipwreck, capsizing, collision, stranding, explosion, fire and defect in the ship. You must therefore prove fault on the part of the carrier or its servants: an untreated slippery step, a missing handrail, the absence of a warning sign after washing down. Ask in writing for the closed circuit television footage to be preserved.

My ferry was four hours late, am I entitled to compensation?

Yes, if you are not on a cruise. Article 19 of Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010 of 24 November 2010 provides for 25 per cent of the ticket price where the delay in arrival exceeds one hour for a scheduled crossing of up to four hours, two hours up to eight hours, three hours up to twenty four hours, and 50 per cent beyond twice that threshold. The compensation is payable within one month, save for extraordinary circumstances or dangerous weather.

Must the company accommodate me if the crossing is cancelled in the evening?

Yes. Article 17 of Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010 requires snacks and meals appropriate to the waiting time and then, where a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary, free accommodation on board or ashore. The carrier may limit that assistance to three nights and to 80 euros per night. You keep the choice opened by Article 18 between re-routing at no extra cost and reimbursement within seven days.

My car was scratched on the car deck, what can I recover?

The Athens Convention limits compensation to 12,700 SDR per vehicle, including the luggage carried in it, and its Article 8, paragraph 4, allows a contractual deductible of up to 330 SDR, which often absorbs a simple scratch. Report the damage before leaving the ship: Article 15 requires immediate written notice, failing which you will be presumed to have taken the vehicle back undamaged.

My suitcase never made it on board the cruise, what is my remedy?

Two claims run together. Against the carrier, the Athens Convention limits the loss of luggage other than cabin luggage to 3,375 SDR, subject to written notice within fifteen days of disembarkation under its Article 15. Against the organiser, the package governed by Directive (EU) 2015/2302 gives a right to a price reduction for lack of conformity, since the service bought was not supplied.

How long do I have to act after an accident on board?

Two years, under Article 16 of the Athens Convention. Time runs from disembarkation, from the day on which it should have taken place, or from death where death occurs afterwards, subject then to a maximum of three years. No action is admissible beyond five years from disembarkation, or three years from the day on which the victim knew of the damage, whichever is the shorter.

Can I sue the company’s insurer directly?

Yes, where the ship is licensed to carry more than twelve passengers. Article 4 bis of the Athens Convention then requires insurance of at least 250,000 SDR per passenger per incident, evidenced by a certificate that must be carried on board, and opens a direct action. The insurer may raise only the defences available to the carrier, the limit of cover and the wilful misconduct of the assured. Ask for that certificate in your very first letter.

The general conditions point to the courts of Miami, does that clause hold?

Rarely, for a passenger domiciled in France. Article 17 of the Athens Convention opens several courts to the claimant, including that of the place of departure or of destination, and deprives of effect jurisdiction clauses concluded before the incident. If the cruise was sold as a package, Articles 17 to 19 of the Brussels I bis Regulation allow the consumer to sue before the court of his own domicile.

Matters in this field are handled by Hervé Guyader, lawyer at the Paris Bar and doctor of law.