Cruise Lines Beat $440 Million Ruling in Cuban Travel Suit

Four cruise lines were cleared of $440 million in liability for committing “trafficking acts” by carrying passengers to Cuban port facilities seized by Fidel Castro’s government in 1960.

Carnival Corp., Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., and MSC Cruises SA CO. aren’t liable under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act for transporting passengers to a Havana terminal because the leasehold interest was a property right that no longer exists, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled, in an opinion by Judge Adalberto Jordan.

The ruling upends a 2022 decision by the ...