Trivago. Credit: Tobias Arhelger/Shutterstock.com

Miami-based law firm Rivero Mestre has filed suit against travel website Trivago, alleging the company benefited from property expropriated by the Cuban government after the Cuban revolution.

On May 2, President Donald Trump gave the green light for lawsuits to be lodged against companies using land confiscated by Cuba after 1959.

The plaintiffs, Marisela Mata and Bibiana Hernandez, are descendants of Antonio Mata y Alvarez, who built the San Carlos hotel in Cienfuegos in 1925 and left after the government led by Fidel Castro appropriated the hotel in 1962.

Because Trivago offers booking services to the San Carlos hotel, which is now operated by Spanish hotelier Meliá, the firm alleges that Trivago and its parent company Expedia have “benefited from the San Carlos.” Title III of the Helms-Burton Act defines trafficking as one who “sells, transfers, distributes, dispenses, brokers, manages or otherwise disposes of confiscated property.”

According to case filings, Trivago provides online bookings to 125 properties in Cuba. The company “facilitate[s] the booking of hotel rooms, airline seats, car rentals and destination services from … travel suppliers.”

The lawsuit also gives Expedia a 30-day notice of intent to sue. Rivero Mestre partner Jorge Mestre said that the firm decided to give notice instead of suing now because companies given a months' notice are subject to triple damages.

“It tells companies that if you don't make me whole, on day 31 I can sue you for three times the amount of damages,” Mestre said.

Trivago did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

Rivero Mestre had already targeted companies involved in the operation of the San Carlos hotel. On May 20, it filed a suit against the hotel and its operators on behalf of the Mata family, including Grupo Hotelero Gran Caribe, Corporación de Comercio y Turismo Internacional Cubanacán S.A., Grupo de Turismo Gaviota S.A. and Corporación Cimex S.A.

A similar notice of intent to sue was given to Spanish hotelier Meliá in the original suit, and Mestre said the firm will “absolutely go forward” with the litigation. The firm has several other lawsuits in the works as well, he said.

“We are pleased to have brought the first claim of this type under the statute,” Mestre said. “Nobody has done this. We are thinking about it creatively.”

Mark Migdal & Hayden name partner Don Hayden, who previously headed up Baker McKenzie's Miami office, said the suit will hinge on just how broadly the courts choose to define “trafficking.” This is the first time the law has been implemented so there is no precedent.

“[Trivago] isn't the present user, but they're third properties that are doing business with the property owners,” Hayden said. “If something like this is found to have legs, it will open the door to a lot of litigation.”

Despite experts warning of a flood of litigation in the wake of the activation of Title III of Helms-Burton, there had been only four Helms-Burton suits filed in the U.S. The Trivago suit is the fifth. Observers point to the difficulty of bringing these complex cases as well as the significant financial and geopolitical obstacles in filing a case of this nature.

Trivago is a publicly traded German company, majority-owned by the Expedia Group. Carnival Cruise Lines is the only U.S. company to have been hit with a Helms-Burton suit so far.

In Spain, Meliá also was hit with a $11.24 million lawsuit this week — filed by U.S. citizens who are descendants of former Cuban businessman Rafael Lucas Sánchez Hill. The Spanish newspaper El Confidencial reported that it was the first lawsuit ever filed in Spain by Cuban Americans against Spanish companies that benefited from expropriated properties in Cuba.

But it is not clear to what extent a lawsuit filed in Spain may have value in the United States. European legislation has rejected the extraterritorial nature of the law and Spanish authorities continue to defend Spanish investments in Cuba.

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