Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines 2009 Annual Report Download - page 37

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We lease an office building in Springfield, Oregon totaling approximately 163,000 square feet, which is used as a call center for
reservations. In addition, we own an office building totaling approximately 23,000 square feet and lease an office building totaling
approximately 72,000 square feet in Wichita, Kansas, which are used as call centers for reservations and customer service. We lease
two buildings in Miramar, Florida totaling approximately 178,000 square feet. One building is used primarily as additional office
space and the other building is used as a call center for reservations.
We lease our logistics center in Weston, Florida totaling approximately 267,000 square feet.
We operate two private destinations: (i) an island we own in the Bahamas which we call CocoCay; and (ii) Labadee, a secluded
peninsula which we lease and is located on the north coast of Haiti. Our Labadee destination was not damaged by the recent
earthquake in Haiti and our ships have been able to continue visiting that destination.
In January 2010, we reached a settlement with Rolls Royce, co-producer of the Mermaid pod-propulsion system on Celebrity
Cruises’ Millennium-class ships, in our lawsuit pending in the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Florida against Rolls Royce for
the recurring Mermaid pod failures. Under the terms of the settlement, we will receive payments of approximately $85.6 million, net
of costs and payments to insurers, of which $20.0 million will be payable within five years. As part of the settlement, each party has
agreed to the dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice and to release the other from all claims and counterclaims made by each party
against the other. This award will be recognized in our consolidated financial statements in the first quarter of 2010 within other
(expense) income.
The Miami District Office of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has alleged that certain
of our shipboard employment practices do not comply with United States employment laws. In June 2007, the EEOC proposed
payment of monetary sanctions of approximately $27.0 million and certain remedial actions. Following discussions with the EEOC
regarding this matter, the EEOC informed us in April 2008 that they transferred the matter to its legal unit for litigation review. To
date, no legal proceedings have been initiated. We believe we have meritorious defenses to these claims and, if proceedings are
initiated, we intend to vigorously pursue them.
In 2008, the Office of the Attorney General of Florida initiated an investigation to determine whether there had been a violation
of Florida or Federal anti-trust laws in connection with the imposition of supplemental charges for fuel implemented by a number of
cruise lines. The Attorney General sought and received documentary information from the Company. In February 2010, the Company
was informed that the Attorney General has no plans to take any further action.
In January 2006, a purported class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New
York alleging that we and certain other named cruise lines infringed rights in copyrighted works and other intellectual property by
presenting performances on our cruise ships without securing the necessary licenses. In March 2009, the Court dismissed the
complaint for failure to state a claim with sufficient particularity but granted leave to re-file. In April 2009 plaintiffs filed an amended
complaint with substantially the same allegations as the original complaint except that it no longer seeks class action treatment and
confines its allegations of infringement to plaintiffs’ copyrights of the theatrical production of Grease. The suit seeks payment of
damages against all named defendants in an undetermined amount of not less than $10.0 million, as well as disgorgement of profits, a
permanent injunction against future infringement and punitive and treble damages. We have filed a motion to dismiss the amended
complaint or, alternatively, to sever and transfer the case to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. We
believe we have meritorious defenses to these claims which we will continue to vigorously pursue.
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