The First Instance Court for Administrative, Tax and Consumer Relations Litigation No. 27 of the CABA, headed by Judge Guillermo Patricio Canepa , upheld a lawsuit and ordered a tourism company that promotes cruise trips, in which the territory of the Malvinas Islands is advertised as belonging to the United Kingdom, to rectify said publications and indicate “the Argentine Republic as the country of destination for the trip, omitting any reference to the United Kingdom.”
The case arose from an action for unlawful advertising (provided for in the Procedural Code for Consumer Relations in CABA), brought by lawyers Facundo J. Roitman and Melisa E. Guevara against Cruiseline SRL . They asked that it be ordered to stop advertising in which it promotes cruise trips in which the territory of the Malvinas Islands is advertised as belonging to the United Kingdom.
Consequently, they requested the preventive withdrawal of the advertisement and the publication of corrective advertisements under the same conditions in which the offer was made, as well as the publication of the conviction on the defendant's websites, social media accounts and digitally in local and national newspapers. They also requested that a copy of the conviction be sent to each consumer who has booked or will book the cruise in the future.
The lawyers argued that the advertisements convey harmful messages that harm all Argentines and dishonor those who fought for the sovereignty of the Islands, and that they also convey erroneous information that is harmful to consumers.
Regarding the questioned publications, they stated that they “violate consumer regulations by including legends that lead consumers into an error regarding the factual and legal situation: in addition to inducing that the destination is the United Kingdom, it confuses the sovereignty over the Islands, which belong to Argentina, a country that maintains its unwavering claim on the territory.”
The judge considered that the statements made by the defendant company regarding the fact that, as an intermediary, it does not decide on the content of the message, "cannot be welcomed, given that it intervenes directly through its websites in the cruise travel marketing chain."
"It was also proven that the defendant, through its websites, offers various cruise trips operated by different shipping companies, with an itinerary that includes the Malvinas Islands and South Georgia Island, where the United Kingdom is mentioned as the destination country, indicating in some of them also the name of Puerto Argentino, to refer to the geographical location of Malvinas," added the magistrate.
After citing various regulations, Canepa said : “ It is clearly established in Argentine legal terms that the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the maritime and island spaces are part of Argentine territory, they form part of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands, and despite the colonial occupation of the territory by the United Kingdom, the Argentine Nation and people claim their sovereignty and the recovery of said territories.”
Finally, it concluded that “cruise advertisements that refer to the territory of the Malvinas and South Georgia Islands as belonging to the United Kingdom are illegal, since they are contrary to the constitutional mandate that states that the Argentine Nation ratifies its legitimate and imprescriptible sovereignty. Likewise, they affect the collective dignity of the Argentine people and are contrary to the system of values and rights recognized by the National Constitution and by the aforementioned laws.”
Canepa considered that the advertisements referred to are illegal and can be classified as misleading , since they contain concealments and inaccuracies , "which are sufficient to induce error, confusion or deception to consumers who intend to book the cruise, where they are not provided with correct information about the countries they will visit during the trip, about the geographic location of the tourist destinations and photographic images of cities that the cruise will not visit are included."
The magistrate ordered the company Cruiseline SRL to, within 5 days, eliminate the illegal aspects of the advertising messages and proceed to rectify all illegal advertising and ordered that in all future publications offering a trip with a stopover in the Malvinas Islands, the South Georgia Islands or the South Sandwich Islands, the Argentine Republic be indicated as the destination country.
The court also ordered that a corrective notice be published on the websites it manages and on its social networks and, furthermore, that a communication be sent to each consumer who has booked the trips in question in accordance with the provisions of the ruling.
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