War, Contracts, and the New Reality of Force Majeure

As tensions in the Middle East ripple across the region, planners are scrutinizing force majeure clauses across every event contract, from venues and hotels to AV providers, caterers, and speakers. The goal is to determine whether they can postpone, relocate, or cancel without penalty.

The answer, more often than not, is unclear.

Contract Language Critical

“Force majeure depends on the language in a contract,” said attorney Joshua Grimes with Grimes Law Offices. “The key is whether performance by a party is impossible, illegal, or very difficult.”

That threshold is higher than many planners expect.

Some contracts broadly reference “acts of war.” Others require a declared war or specific conditions, such as airspace closures or government travel restrictions. Without those triggers, geopolitical conflict alone may not be enough to justify cancellation.

“Having a war in the world is not automatically a force majeure,” said Tyra Warner, chair of hospitality, tourism, and culinary arts at the College of Coastal Georgia. “The war has to make it illegal, impossible, or commercially impracticable to hold or host the meeting. That’s the bar to meet.”

Most U.S.-based events currently don’t meet that threshold. “There is little impact in the U.S., such as a limiting or cessation of air travel, or safety issues preventing group gatherings. But if most attendees were traveling to the event from the Middle East, the answer might be different,” said Grimes.

In the wake of Covid, many suppliers have tightened force majeure language. They have limited scenarios that qualify, and have shifted more risk onto planners.

The distinction between impossibility (legally can’t happen) and impracticability (prohibitively difficult or expensive) is critical, and disputes often fall into a gray area. 

“It's rarely truly illegal or impossible. Those are high bars to meet,” said Warner. 

Risk Extends Beyond the Venue

Contracts are only part of the equation. Planners must map risk across the entire event ecosystem. 

Start with the attendee flow. “If the meeting is being held in the U.S. and doesn't have attendees coming from the Middle East, there's likely no or minimal impact on performance," said Warner.

Even if some attendees are coming from the Middle East, whether that constitutes a force majeure depends on how the clause is written. “Some clauses specify that if any force majeure incident prevents x% of their attendees from coming, that's a force majeure. So if x% of attendees are coming from the Middle East, that may be constituted as a force majeure, again, depending on how the clause is written,” said Warner.

For planners, the implications extend far beyond contracts.

Risk is no longer just about what happens at the venue — it’s about whether attendees, speakers, and suppliers can get there at all. The result is a growing number of scenarios in which events are disrupted but not contractually protected.