The Supreme Court, with the judgement n. 6830/17 filed on March 16^th of  2017, expressly stated that tour operators are obliged to pay compensation for non-pecuniary damages in case of ruined vacation to any customer who had suffered serious injuries. The Court established so, because of the tour operators’ obligation to ensure the holiday’s safety to its customers.

In the case dealt with by the Supreme Court, the customer was violently punched and his watch had been robbed from his wrist while at the hotel where he was staying, and all of this happened in the presence of his underage son. The Campobasso Court had considered only the right to equal compensation for the theft the man suffered, meaning the value of the watch. However, the Court of Appeals condemned the tour operator to pay also the compensation for non-pecuniary damages suffered by the customer, consisting in damage for ruined vacation, now provided in Article 47 of the Tourism Code (Legislative Decree no. 23 May 2011, n. 79, issued in implementation of Directive 2008/122 / EC).

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal of tour operator who complained that the poor security of the place where the customer was staying was not proven. In particular, the Supreme Court considered, confirming the decision of Court of Appeals, that the evidence of the breach subsumes in itself the evidence of the damage’s occurrence, given that, on the one hand the actor’s inner psychic states can not be directly proved and, on the other hand, can be deduced from the failure to achieve the touristic purpose.