French chalet ski holiday operator Le Ski is to take its case against the ski hosting ban in France to the French supreme court, having lost its initial appeal in Chambery last week.
“Le Ski has instructed their lawyer to submit an appeal to the supreme court in Paris regarding the ski hosting case. This is only possible with the continuing support of our fellow tour operators,” said Le Ski’s Managing Director Nick Morgan.
The roots of the case go back many decades but surround the practice of British tour operators to offer free orientation tours of the easy slopes to their clients on arrival in resort.
This service is commonly offered in ski areas around the world, and is commonly provided by the resorts themselves in North America, but has long been a cause of contention in France (and a few Austrian resorts) with ski schools claiming it breaks French law as the hosts are, they say, essential paid ski guides who do not have acceptable qualifications to lead members of the public on French slopes.
Le Ski was taken to court over the matter in 2013 and all British tour operators ceased offering the ski hosting service in France. However 10 companies, including the UK’s largest operators, have backed Le Ski’s case which argues that the verdict is inconstant with French law, where, they argue, unqualified people, such as school teachers, are allowed to lead groups on French slopes; and breaks European law.
The ruling last week at the Court of Appeal in Chambery confirmed the original verdict – that ski hosting is illegal in France – but substantially reduced the amount of damages which had been awarded to the Ecole du Ski Français.
It is too early to say when the next case will be heard and ski hosting remains banned in the meantime.
The tour operators backing Le Ski are:
Alpine Elements, Crystal Ski Holidays, Esprit Ski, Inghams, Mark Warner, Neilson, Ski Olympic, Ski Total, Skiworld and Thomson Ski.