Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

SLOVENIA | MATIJA DAMJAN AND KARMEN LUTMAN 1161 that a package or linked travel arrangement is performed only occasionally. It reads: “Packages and linked travel arrangements are considered to be performed occasionally if the total annual amount of contributions paid for their performance does not exceed 15.000 EUR. However, this restriction (concerning the payment limit) does not apply to: (i) educational institutions in carrying out professional excursions and similar forms of work, which are defined by the annual work plan, if they are performed for the participants of a publicly-accredited educational or study program; (ii) legal persons, that are recognized as having a status of acting in the public interest and (iii) religious communities registered in accordance with the law governing religious freedom in carrying out their regular activities.”. With regard to definitions as contained in Article 3 of the Directive, there are some minor discrepancies between the wording of the Directive and the Consumer Protection Act. The Consumer Protection Act defines a “package” as a combination of at least two different travel services whereas it follows from the Directive that a package is a combination of at least two different types of travel services. Another distinctive feature concerns a rather vague criterion of “a significant proportion of the value of …” as contained in the definitions of a package and linked travel arrangements. Namely, the Slovenian legislature decided to replace it with a more specific criterion. Thus, in Slovenian law a combination of travel services (in the sense of the second subparagraph of the second paragraph of Article 3 of the Directive) is not considered as a package if the services do not account for more than one quarter of the value of a package 22 . Similar applies to linked travel arrangements. Accordingly, a combination of travel services (in the sense of the second subparagraph of fifth paragraph of Article 3 of the Directive) does not constitute a linked travel arrangement if the services do not account for more than one quarter of their combined value 23 . As already mentioned, the definition of a traveller was not transposed into Slovenian law. Instead, the Consumer Protection Act refers to a consumer whereby it explicitly stipulates that the protection in the field of package travel and linked travel arrangements is not limited to consumers. As pointed out, the transposed law applies to all travellers with the exception of those purchasing travel on the basis of a general agreement for purposes relating to their trade, business, craft or profession. Therefore, the term consumer in this subsection of the law actually refers to any non-professional traveller. 22 Article a57.b(2) of the Consumer Protection Act. 23 Article a57.b(3) of the Consumer Protection Act.