Austria not liable for Ischgl ski resort COVID outbreak

Vienna's Supreme Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that the Austrian state cannot be held liable for infections during a 2020 COVID-19 outbreak that hit an Alpine ski resort.

The case was brought by a resident of Germany who had traveled to Ischgl in Austria's western state of Tyrol and stayed there from March 7 to March 13, 2020.

The plaintiff had sought damages over the "catastrophic mismanagement by the relevant authorities" in Tyrol in early March 2020.

The outbreak at the popular Ischgl resort was seen as one of Europe's first "super-spreader" events in the early days of the pandemic. The resort is known for its nightlife and its "apres-ski" scene.

Over 6,000 people from 45 countries contracted the coronavirus at the resort in March, 2020, and 32 of those infected died.

What did the court find?

The federal court said that the Tyrol state government gave incorrect information in a March 5, 2020 statement. The statement suggested that passengers that had flown from Munich to Reykjavik caught COVID-19 on the plane rather than in Tyrol.

In truth, the authorities already had reason to believe that one man had developed symptoms before flying to Iceland, the court said in a verdict on May 15.

However, the court also ruled that the statement did not form a "basis of trust" that would cause people to make faulty decisions, as it noted that the evaluation was formulated vaguely, and stated it was based on initial information and that further clarification was in progress.

The federal court also upheld lower court's findings that authorities' obligations under anti-COVID-19 regulations were designed "exclusively to protect the general public."

An independent commission concluded late in 2020 that Tyrol authorities acted too slowly to shut down ski resorts, but did not find that political or business pressure influenced the decision.

In November 2021, prosecutors said they would not file criminal charges against five people under investigation over the outbreak.

'Deep disappointment' for consumers

The legal director of Austria's Consumer Protection Association, Peter Kolba, called the verdict a "deep disappointment" for those infected in the Ischgl outbreak. He argued that some of the visitors had "suffered severe damage because of the mistakes of authorities in Tyrol."

He said that the verdict amounted to "license for authorities to do whatever nonsense occurs to them during a pandemic."

Kolba said that the association would consider further action for damages against Austria.

sdi/dj (AP, AFP, dpa)