“I have a business where I provide passenger gifts for people who are going on cruise ships. We are licensed to sell wine & beer. We have been in business for 17 years. Today one of the cruiselines decided to not allow any of our gift packages on board that contain alcohol. The original memo (which i was not able to get) stated it was because they wanted to keep the revenue for themselves. The letter that i received states that their guests were trying to get around their rules of not allowing passengers to bring wine on aboard themselves. They have accepted our gifts for 17 years & accept a $5 per item receiving fee. At no point prior have they refused any gift & have cashed our checks for the fees. This action will put us out of business, I have already had to refund thousands of dollars to customers & have thousands more that will need to be refunded. Is this legal? Do I have any recourse?”

This is a tricky situation. The first place to look is at the contract you have with the cruise line. What, if anything, does it say about alcohol, or the cruise line’s right to refuse your product?

Next, there are the various issues of waiver and detrimental reliance, as well as breach and constructive breach.

All these are fancy ways of saying that even if the contract itself doesn’t support your position, past practices between you and the cruiseline may run to your favour. Or, vice versa.

Your best bet at this point is to consult with a business litigation attorney who is very familiar with contract cases.


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State laws vary, and the above is intended as general advice, and not direct legal advice regarding any one particular situation in any one state. For direct personal legal advice related to your own situation you should consult an attorney familiar with the laws of your state and with your situation.