Carnival Hit with Fake Government Fees Class Action Lawsuit

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In December 2014, a fake government fees class action lawsuit was filed against Carnival Corp. & PLC, alleging the cruise line operator charged customers who booked their cruise reservation through the Marriott Vacation Club fake government and port fees at an inflated price for the company’s own profit. This Carnival class action lawsuit was recently removed to Florida federal court on Jan. 28.

Plaintiff Daniel Finerman filed this fake government fees class action lawsuit alleging he and his wife were charged over $311 in government and port fees by Carnival for a cruise vacation he booked using his Marriott Vacation Club points. These fake government fees were allegedly higher than the government fees quote Carnival gave him for the identical cruise when he asked for the booking directly through the cruise line operator.

The cruise line operator makes a practice of “inflating and/or deceptively creating certain fees claimed to be owed to governmental entities and port authorities when booking cruises for consumers, and collection and retaining those inflated or fictitious fees for its own profit and gain,” Finerman alleges in the Carnival class action lawsuit.

In response to these allegations, Carnival had this fake government fees class action lawsuit removed to federal court and has additionally filed a motion to compel the plaintiff and other consumers to arbitration.

The plaintiff alleges he redeemed his MVC points in November 2014 to book a six-day Western Caribbean Carnival cruise. However, despite his Marriott Vacation Club membership and use of 2,650 points, Finerman claims he was charged $566.17 in additional fees, which included “$159.00 each for Port fees, $114.11 each for government fees, and a processing fee of $19.95.”

According to the Carnival fake government fees class action lawsuit, “The processing fee was paid to the travel agency used to book the cruise. The government fees and port charges were paid to Carnival Corporation.” Finerman further alleges that when attempted to book the same cruise through Carnival’s own website, the fees only came to a total of $235.08, which is about $311 less than same government fees he was charged when he booked through the Marriott Vacation Club.

In this fake government fees class action lawsuit, Carnival faces claims that:

“The amounts charged and paid by plaintiff were fabricated, or at the very least inflated to increase Carnival Corp.’s profits, and these deceptively billed and collected sums were never intended to and were not in fact paid to any governmental entity or port authority in their entirety and these sums have been retained by defendant.”

The Marriott Vacation Club, of which Finerman and other potential Class Members are a part of, is a time-share program where individuals pay a one-time fee to own a “share,” which provides each member with a certain number of points every year. These points can be used to book vacations through the Marriott Vacation Club.

Through his Carnival class action lawsuit, Finerman is seeking the certification of a Carnival government fees Class, an injunction preventing Carnival to continue with these allegedly unlawful and deceptive fee practices, disgorgement of profits, award of attorney’s fees, and payment of damages incurred by the plaintiff.

The plaintiff is represented by John A. Yanchunis and Tamra C. Givens of Morgan & Morgan PA.

The Carnival Fake Government Fees Class Action Lawsuit is Finerman v. Carnival Corporation, Case No. 1:15-cv-20311, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.