BERLIN, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The German government announced on Wednesday to compensate customers who booked package tours at the German subsidiary of the insolvent travel agency Thomas Cook.
According to the government, "financial losses that are not compensated by other parties will be compensated by the federal government."
For German customers, package tours booked with Thomas Cook were insured by the insurance company Zurich. However, Zurich has indicated that it would reimburse only a small portion of the travel prepayments already made by customers because total financial losses would be above the legal liability limit of 110 million euros (121.9 million U.S. dollars) per year.
Thomas Cook Germany had filed for insolvency in Germany after the bankruptcy of the British parent company in September.
Already in November, customers of Thomas Cook Germany had reported damages of 250 million euros. Zurich expected the total sum increase further after Thomas Cook announced to cancel all pre-booked holiday trips for 2020.
The German government said it would be "unreasonable" for customers to have to deal with the "complex legal issues that remain unresolved".
According to the government, the financial compensation of German customers would be "the only way to prevent a considerable avalanche of lawsuits, to push ahead with a concentrated legal clarification and, at the end of the day, to keep the potential damage to the taxpayer as low as possible." Enditem
