Angered by a Florida law that bans businesses from requiring proof of being fully vaccinated, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has taken the matter to federal court.
It is the latest move in a battle between Norwegian, which believes that mandating vaccinations is a crucial step for the company to move past Covid, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who maintains that such requirements are discriminatory.
In a complaint late Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Florida’s Southern District, Norwegian (ticker: NCLH) is seeking a jury trial and asking for temporary and permanent injunctions to resolve the dispute.
The law “threatens to spoil NCLH’s careful planning and force it to cancel or hobble upcoming cruises, thereby imperiling and impairing passengers’ experiences and inflicting irreparable harm of vast dimensions,” proclaims the suit, which names Florida Surgeon General Scott A. Rivkees.
A statement issued by the Florida governor’s office Tuesday said that Norwegian “has made the disappointing and unlawful choice to join the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] in discriminating against children and other individuals who cannot be vaccinated or who have opted not to be vaccinated for reasons of health, religion or conscience.”
The statement calls Norwegian’s suit “meritless” and further criticized it for relying on the CDC’s conditional sailing order “that has kept business closed all year.”
Norwegian’s stock closed Tuesday at around $26, down more than 4% on the day’s trading. It was up about 1% in pre-market trading Wednesday.
Norwegian, the smallest of the big three U.S. cruise operators, has been planning to have its first post-Covid U.S. sailing in August from Miami.
Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) launched its first U.S. sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in late June without any reported Covid incidents.
The cruise companies had mostly been shut down since March 2020, though there were some limited excursions in Europe and Asia starting later last year.
Norwegian said in the suit that the halt in operations due to the pandemic has cost the company more than $6 billion.
The U.S. ports—and Florida in particular—are a crucial market for Norwegian and its peers.
Norwegian has decided that “the right way to ensure the health and safety of passengers and crew is to require full vaccination of all passengers and crew alike on cruises,” according to the suit.
Under the Florida law, which grew out of an executive order from DeSantis, any business operating in the state “may not require patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-infection recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business operations” in Florida.
The Norwegian complaint, however, argues that the law places it “in an impossible dilemma as it prepares to set sail from Florida”—and that it’s stuck between the Florida statute and “the operative legal federal framework.”
The CDC has been spearheading the federal government’s health and safety protocols pertaining to Covid for the cruise operators.
The 19-page complaint outlines the steps the company has taken leading up to its decision to mandate Covid vaccinations and documentation. Norwegian, according to the complaint, told the CDC “that its cruise ships will sail only upon confirmation that at least 95% of passengers have been fully vaccinated prior to sailing.”
If Norwegian can’t mandate vaccination proof, it makes it much harder to meet the CDC’s conditions, potentially jeopardizing future sailings.
Before Royal Caribbean’s Celebrity Edge set sail on June 26, the company relied on passengers to voluntarily disclose their Covid vaccination proof, CEO Richard Fain told Barron’s.
That step did not prevent the vessel from departing.
The company, however, is requiring Covid vaccination documentation from passengers in all other U.S. ports where it plans to sail from, including Seattle—the gateway for Alaska cruises.
The cruise reopening in Florida has many crosscurrents. In early April, the state of Florida sued the CDC, challenging that federal agency’s restrictions on the industry. Last month, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction against the CDC, but that is being appealed.
Norwegian, however, is arguing that the Florida law prevents it from complying with the CDC.
Write to Lawrence C. Strauss at [email protected]
