“The biggest hotel chain in the world and two online travel agents may have breached UK competition law by entering into agreements that limited the ability of those agents to discount the price of room-only offers, a UK regulator has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 31st July 2012
Source: www.out-law.com
“On 10th February 2012, the Court of Appeal upheld a Judge’s ruling that a Christian couple, Peter and Hazelmary Bull, had discriminated against Martin Hall and Steven Preddy on grounds of sexual orientation when they refused them a double-bedded room at their hotel near Penzance.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 19th February 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Preddy and another v Bull and another [2012] EWCA Civ 83; [2012] WLR (D) 30
“By operating a policy of restricting occupancy of double-bedded rooms in their hotel to married couples, the defendants had discriminated directly against the claimant, a homosexual couple. The defendants’ policy, dictated by their religious belief that it was sinful for heterosexual or homosexual couples to have sexual relations outside marriage, was not protected under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 because the former could be married but the latter could not. The restriction was therefore absolute in relation to homosexuals but not in relation to heterosexuals, and constituted discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. No individual was entitled to manifest his religious belief when and where he chose so as to obtain exemption in all circumstances from some legislative provisions of general application. Furthermore, by virtue of article 9(2 ) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the right to manifest one’s own religious belief, as opposed to the right to hold it, was qualified by such ‘limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society … for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others’ such as the claimants’ rights which were protected under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.”
WLR Daily, 10th February 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Two Christian guesthouse owners who were ordered to pay damages after refusing to allow a gay couple to stay in a double room have lost their appeal. The challenge by Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who run Chymorvah House in Marazion, Cornwall, was rejected by three judges in the court of appeal in London.”
The Guardian, 10th February 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Devout Christian hotel owners who refused to allow a gay couple to share a double room have insisted at the appeal court that they should have been allowed to impose the ban.”
The Guardian, 8th November 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The owners of a Cornish hotel destroyed by fire have been fined £80,000 and ordered to pay £62,000 costs for failing to meet fire safety standards.”
BBC News, 4th May 2011
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Judgement in a landmark case into the rights of a gay couple from Bristol who were refused a double room at a Cornish B&B has been deferred.”
BBC News, 14th December 2010
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is investigating whether the sale of hotel room bookings on the internet breaches competition law, looking into whether an allegedly long-established pricing mechanism is anti-competitive.”
OUT-LAW.com, 20th September 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
“The ‘own name’ defence under art 12(a) of Council Regulation (EC) 40/94, whereby a community trade mark did not entitle the proprietor to prohibit a third party from using in the course of trade his own name and address, could be available in respect of a trading name, as well as a corporate name of a company, but it would depend on: (i) the actual trading name that had been adopted; (ii) the circumstances in which it had been adopted; and (iii) depending on the circumstances, whether the use was in accordance with honest practices.”
WLR Daily, 4th March 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“A hotel guest who enjoyed illicit cigarettes in his no-smoking bedroom has been ordered to pay compensation to the establishment’s owners.”
The Times, 12th November 2007
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
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