REDWOOD CITY – A travel agency with offices in Menlo Park is expected to pay more than $1 million to settle claims it violated state laws by failing to provide refunds for tours canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to prosecutors.
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The settlement calls for Nawas International Travel to pay at least $567,138 in restitution and $560,000 in civil penalties, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said in a news release Wednesday.
“Travel agents operating in California must comply with California’s strong consumer protection laws, this includes providing timely refunds for cancelled travel,” Bonta said in a statement. “Today’s settlement provides important restitution for those harmed by Nawas’s attempt to disregard California law and a reminder to the travel industry that all California sellers of travel need to play by the rules.”
The settlement is pending court approval.
Nawas, a seller and provider of trips to religious sites around the world, canceled hundreds of international tours in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than refunding the full amount of deposits and payments, the agency unlawfully withheld “cancelation fees” of between $200 and $1,150 per traveler, according to prosecutors.
The agency ended up withholding around $560,000 in cancelation fees from about 600 travelers. Prosecutors said the move violated the California Seller of Travel Act, which requires sellers to provide full refunds for any travel they are unable to provide.
Nawas, for its part, claimed it was allowed to withhold cancelation fees under its own terms and conditions.
“California law provides protections for consumers when purchasing travel from sellers of travel,” Wagstaffe said in a statement. “My office was pleased to work with the Attorney General’s Office in this case to ensure these laws were enforced.”
The Attorney General’s Office operates the Seller of Travel program, which registers travel agents and certain other travel businesses, and the attorney general and district attorneys can bring enforcement actions against sellers for violations of the law.
San Mateo County residents who believe they have been wronged by a seller of travel can file a complaint with the program at www.oag.ca.gov/report or with the district attorney’s office at www.smcgov.org/da/consumer-and-environmental-protection.
