Club Med dishonours its contracts

I had booked, for my family and extended family, an all-inclusive Holiday Package from Club Med at one of its resorts in Mauritius.

Covid intervened and Club Med rightfully declared force majeure in terms of its Terms and Conditions (T&C's).

However, when Club Med started taking bookings again for dates when it was considered that Covid would be something of the past, Club Med dishonoured its contract/Agreement with me.

Clause 19.1 of Club Med's T&C's effectively provides only for a suspension of the contract for the period during which the force majeure event remains in effect. It does not provide for a change in the price of the contract, or for a change to any other aspect of the contract.

Despite the above, Club Med denied my contention that the price should remain constant after Covid. It maintained that Club Med would hold my deposit as a credit, which I could later apply against the price of an entirely new booking.

In support of its above assertion, Club Med (and its attorneys, Consilium) lied that Club Med acted merely as an agent for entities which actually provided the flights and land arrangements, which together made up the services which Club Med itself contracted to deliver in terms of its T&C's.

It is clear from the T&C's that Club Med acts as a principal in terms of its contractual arrangements, not as an agent. This means that any monies that Club Med disburses to entities that deliver services for its all-inclusive Holiday Package are paid to secure for itself those services which it (Club Med) has contracted to deliver to its members/travelers. There is no contractual arrangement between Club Med's members/travelers and its own suppliers.

I even obtained an independent legal opinion which confirmed the above contentions, but Club Med's attorneys just brushed it off.

The last price that Club Med indicated that I would have to pay, in order to enjoy the same benefits that I had originally contracted for, reflected an increase of 42% in the total cost of the holiday. This was, of course, entirely unacceptable.

Accordingly, I took the alternate route of cancelling my Agreement with Club Med in terms of clause 19.2 of the T&C's (which provided this option should the force majeure event subsist for longer than 90 days).

Club Med "accepted" my cancellation, but nevertheless refused to repay my deposit - thus further dishonouring its Agreement with me.

I therefore took this failure, by Club Med to repay the deposit, to arbitration under the auspices of AFSA. But this is a story for another time.

I have extensively reviewed and interpreted the legal meanings in Club Med's T&C's, in contrast to Club Med's (mis)application of them. I would be happy to share this review with anyone who might be interested. You can contact me at jonlavies@icloud.com.