Austrian government faces lawsuit over Ischgl outbreak

A consortium consisting of over 1,000 people who claimed to have caught COVID-19 at the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl announced legal action against the government for its handling of the outbreak, the group's advocate, Peter Kolba, declared at a press conference in Vienna on Wednesday.

Kolba lodged liability claims on Tuesday on behalf of two tourists and one businessman who caught the virus at the resort as well as the family of a man who died after being infected there. They are demanding up to €100,000 ($117,000) in damages.

The four cases are the first attempts at legal action over the outbreak and may lead to further class action suits for the many others who caught the novel coronavirus in Tyrolean town.

"These are just the first cases, others will follow," Kolba said.

Critical of government's response

Kolba, who heads the legal department of an Austrian consumer protection group called the VKI, has so far contacted 6,000 people from 45 different countries in relation to the outbreak in Ischgl. At least 32 people out of the cluster infected there died.

The lawsuits are based on the claim that the authorities reacted too late — they let the resort remain open for several days in March after allegedly becoming aware of the existence of COVID-19 cases there.

Kolba also accused Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of botching his response when he did act, calling a sudden quarantine of the area on March 13, leading to a panicked and poorly-organized departure by guests and seasonal workers. DW's Peter Koppen was among them. 

Read more (from late March):  My coronavirus quarantine — daily grind brought to a halt

"When it comes to managing the departure ... Chancellor Kurz is probably the one who caused the chaos,'' Kolba said at the press conference. "What he did was reveal that something would happen, creating an impossible situation for the police on site.''

He also said that with the imposed lockdown, some 10,000 foreign tourists were told to leave Austria, but the authorities only collected contact details for 2,600 of them.

Kolba called on Kurz to arrange a round table with those who had been at the resort in order to discuss how to best compensate them.

"If someone in Tyrol today says specifically what mistakes were made, if they apologize — without ifs and buts — and announce how many millions will be set aside to compensate tourists instead of building new ski lifts, that would be a good first step," Kolba said. "But I would be very surprised if that happened."

ab/msh (AP, dpa, Reuters)