Hotel’s refusal to serve guest tap water at restaurant is lawful, top Italian court rules

By Jack Guy, Antonia Mortensen and Juan Pablo O’Connell, CNN

(CNN) — A five-star hotel in Italy that repeatedly refused to serve a guest tap water at its restaurant did not break any laws, the country’s top court has ruled.

The woman filed a lawsuit after hotel staff said they would only serve her bottled water during a stay at the end of 2019, according to a court ruling seen by CNN. She’d argued that access to water was a fundamental right.

However, the Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that the decision not to serve tap water was lawful. The case was taken to the Supreme Court after being rejected by a court in Rome and an appeals court.

According to the ruling, the woman stayed at the Hotel Sassongher, located in Italy’s northern Badia region, between December 26, 2019, and January 3, 2020. She was on a half-board package that excluded drinks, for which she had paid 5,712 euros ($6,654).

During dinner, she’d asked to be given tap water and offered to pay for it as a service charge, but hotel staff would only provide bottled water at a price of around 7 euros ($8.15).

The guest later filed a lawsuit asking for compensation of around 2,700 euros ($3,147).

She argued that “water is a natural good and a universal human right of every individual, and that the free supply of a minimum vital quantity necessary to satisfy essential needs must be guaranteed, even in the event of arrears,” the court ruling states.

However, her lawsuit has now been rejected at the highest level of the Italian justice system, with the Supreme Court ruling that the country’s laws do not require restaurateurs or hotel owners to serve tap water.

Judges made their decision in November, but the ruling has only just hit headlines in Italy, sparking debate.

In a statement, Hotel Sassongher told CNN Wednesday that it “fully respects the decision of the Supreme Court,” but declined to provide any comment on it.

Access to tap water has exposed cultural differences between the United States and some European countries in the past.

US travelers sharing hot takes on European tap water consumption (or lack thereof) has become something of a social media trend.

Although there is no federal US law stipulating that restaurants or hotels have to serve tap water, it is a widely accepted cultural norm.

In England and Wales, restaurants that serve alcohol are required to provide free tap water by law. But in mainland Europe, things are very different.

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