French Court Finds Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer Cruise Ship Ban Is Illegal
by Dori Saltzman
Villefranche-sur-mer. Photo: Shutterstock.com
A cruise ship ban against large ships in Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer in France that technically went into effect on July 1 has been overturned by a French court.
The law had gotten off to a rocky start when Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas ignored it on July 3, inciting Nice’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, also the president of the Nice Cote d’Azur Metropole, to get on a police boat in a failed attempt to force the ship to leave. Following this incident, the Mayor reissued the ban with a new start date of July 11, 2025.
The ban would have limited cruise ships to 450 passengers in Nice and 2,500 passengers in Villefranche-sur-Mer.
The court ruling, which was issued on July 13, was the result of a challenge by the Prefet of the Alpes-Maritimes region.
As reported by Seatrade Cruise News, the court “determined that Estrosi lacked the authority to implement such restrictions, ruling that these powers belong exclusively to the prefet, who is ‘within the framework of his powers of policing the water place, to organize the entries, exits and movements of ships.’”
The court also said that any attempt at a ban would “go against the freedom of movement for cruise ship passengers and the freedom of trade and industry for cruise operators.”
Had the ban gone into effect, at least 12 ship calls could have been forced to cancel for the remainder of 2025, with 53 scheduled visits affected in 2026.
