In a “first” for an online travel company, Travelocity.com has been fined by federal regulators for booking trips between the US and Cuba in violation of a 45-year-old embargo.
Travelocity.com paid $182,750 this month to settle a complaint brought by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to CBS News. The government said the company violated the sanctions’ rules almost 1,500 times between January 1998 and April 2004.
“Travelocity provided travel-related services in which Cuba or Cuban nationals had an interest by arranging air travel and hotel reservations to, from, with or within Cuba without an OFAC license,” the complaint said.
The federal embargo-enforcement office has granted licenses to dozens of travel service providers for approved trips to and from Cuba for academic, religious or journalistic activities, humanitarian projects and family visits.
Travelocity spokesman Joel Frey said the company had not applied for a license and did not intend to. “In no way did the company intend to allow bookings for trips to Cuba, and the company has fully cooperated with OFAC and implemented corrective measures,” he said.
“The trips to Cuba were unintentionally permitted to be booked by consumers online because of some technical failures several years ago, and it’s just now being finally settled with OFAC,” said Mr Frey. He added:
“In no way did the company intend to allow bookings for trips to Cuba, and the company has fully cooperated with OFAC and implemented corrective measures.”
Report by David Wilkening
