Austria State Not Responsible for Covid Spread in Ischgl

2nd June 2023

Last modified on June 11th, 2023

The Austria Supreme Court has ruled that the state is not responsible for the spreading of Covid-19 in the ski resort. Departing guests subsequently spread it across parts of Europe.

The ski resort was seen as a super-spreader of the virus in March 2020.

The case claimed the state contributed to the “catastrophic mismanagement by the relevant authorities” in the resort in the Tirol.

More than 6,000 people from 45 countries contracted the coronavirus at the resort in March 2020 and 32 of those infected died.

The case was brought by a German resident who was in Ischgl from March 7th to March 13th 2020.

It was seen as a test case.

We reported on the outbreak at the time and the subsequent legal case:

Austrian government in court over reaction to Covid-19 in Ischgl

An independent commission concluded late in 2020 that Tirol authorities acted too slowly to shut down ski resorts but did not find that political or business pressure influenced the decision.

It said that ski resorts could have closed earlier.

It said that the mass exodus when resorts were shut was badly handled & lessons should be learnt.

“There were errors of judgement that had consequences,” said Ronald Rohrer, the head of the investigating commission and a former vice president of Austria’s supreme court.

The resorts should have been closed down four days earlier than they were, according to the report.

It said ‘momentous miscalculations’ were made.

Austria’s Consumer Protection Association called the verdict of the Supreme Court a “deep disappointment”.

It said that some of the visitors had “suffered severe damage because of the mistakes of authorities in the Tirol.”