Tour Injury Lawsuit Tests Whether TripAdvisor Is Liability-Free
Skift Take
Bulletproof legal immunity for "platforms" like TripAdvisor seems to have softened in recent years. What's certain is that as tours and activities go more mainstream as an option on booking sites, intermediaries will have to put more effort into vetting the tour operators.
A New Jersey woman has sued TripAdvisor and its Viator brand over injuries she allegedly sustained on a camel ride tour in Morocco that she booked through Viator.
The suit, filed earlier this week and first reported by the Boston Globe, raises questions about whether TripAdvisor can be held liable for damages related to activities booked on its sites but run by third-party tour operators, and how camel rides fit in with its policies on tours involving animals.
The plaintiff, Breanne Ayala of Medford, New Jersey, alleged that she got injured on a sunset camel tour in Marrakech, Morocco, on January 3, 2018, that she had booked on Viator. In the lawsuit, filed in a state court in Massachusetts, where TripAdvisor is based, Ayala alleged that the camel she rode broke away from a caravan of other camels, and that she fell to the ground, breaking her upper right arm and pinching a nerve.
One of the guides, according to the lawsuit, claimed before the incident that the camel was preg
