Booked an organized tour and canceled on the same day - will they pay cancellation fees?

Three court rulings: Women who canceled an organized tour hours after booking were charged cancellation fees; Booking.com will not compensate for a contaminated villa in Greece; The court disqualified an expert opinion with fictitious AI-generated references.

The weekly column of Globes compiles three interesting court rulings. The first deals with three women who canceled an organized tour to South America just hours after booking it, and were charged cancellation fees of thousands of shekels. The court ruled that the transaction is not a "remote sale" under the Consumer Protection Law, since the customers approached the company on their own initiative, and therefore the cancellation is subject to the company's terms. However, the company was ordered to compensate them 3,000 shekels for distress. The second ruling deals with a family that received a contaminated villa in Greece booked through Booking.com. The District Court accepted Booking.com's appeal and ruled that it is merely an intermediary platform and is not responsible for unexpected defects in the property. The third ruling deals with a lawyer who submitted an expert opinion that included fictitious references to case law, generated using artificial intelligence. The court disqualified the opinion and ruled that it constitutes "serious deception."