Overview
- The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ruled that a yearly travel policy may exclude “damages caused by pandemics” (case IV ZR 109/24).
- The court rejected the consumer federation’s appeal, leaving intact the Berlin Kammergericht’s earlier dismissal of the lawsuit.
- The judges held the wording to be transparent and not an undue disadvantage for customers under standard contract rules.
- The policy’s glossary defines a pandemic as the cross-border spread of an infectious disease across countries and continents.
- A limited exception applies to travel health coverage when no travel warning from the Federal Foreign Office is in place.