After former US President Barack Obama eased the embargo on Cuba, international cruise lines began calling at Havana, which, due to a never-used law from 1966, became a costly affair.

One of the shipping companies is the publicly listed Norwegian Cruise Line.

A Florida court has ordered four American and international cruise lines to pay $109 million each, equivalent to 1.1 billion Swedish kronor, for docking at the port of the Cuban capital Havana.

The port was previously owned by an American company but was nationalized in 1960 in the wake of the Cuban Revolution. A few years later, a law was passed in the United States, the Helms-Burton Act, which allowed American citizens whose assets had been expropriated by Cuba to sue the person who benefited financially from the assets.

The law was intended to discourage foreign investors from doing business with Cuba, but this is the first time it has been used.

Previously, the US trade embargo was deterrent enough, but when former President Barack Obama eased the sanctions, cruise ships headed for Havana.

Something that has now turned out to be costly. The court believes that the port fees paid by the cruise companies should have gone to the original owner.

”"Based on the law's primarily deterrent purpose and the offenses at issue, compensation of just over $100 million per defendant is clearly reasonable," the court wrote in its decision.

Reuters reports that one of the condemned cruise lines is Norwegian Cruise Line, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was founded by Norwegian shipowner Knut Kloster, but is headquartered in Miami.

Source: TT-DI.SE