Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 10 | CHIARA TINCANI 263 legal systems, but they are not particularly relevant for our purposes. In fact, at least according to Italian law 25 , the occurrence of sudden circumstances that can lead to the resolution due to excessive costs, and the situations mentioned in art. 10 do not apply to these cases, of which there is no trace at all in case law. Art. 10 clearly states the “treaty-like” nature of the power to change the consideration and only the insertion of a clause in the negotiation makes it possible to review the price, but the exercise of this power requires novelty on three types of costs, described in detail 26 . An increase attributable to one of the hypotheses is a risk borne by the traveller; therefore, “art. 10 acts (…) as a provision that stylises and regulates the normal risks of the contract” 27 and the power of revision protects not so much the interest of the traveller as the company’s drive for profit. The ius variandi allows the organiser to deal with specified negative occurrences. The increase must not only fall on one of the items, but also be determined on the basis of the methods indicated in the contract and communicated in an understandable manner at least twenty days before departure. If the increase of the fee is an expression of a power with limited discretion, art. 10 does not allow free modifications 28 . Such a general power does not exist and a deed operating such a change would be null. Article 10 allows the tourist to withdraw if the increase exceeds eight percent of the original price 29 , but, if this threshold is not reached, the exercise of unilateral power transforms in a binding way the original effects of negotiation, without possible consumer reactions. If the increase is more than eight percent, the only possible initiative is withdrawal, without any alternatives from the 25 See Terranova, L’eccessiva onerosità nei contratti. Sub artt. 1467 – 1469 (Excessive onerousness in contracts pursuant to arts. 1467-69), in Comm. cod. civ., fondato da P. Schlesinger, ora diretto da D. Busnelli, Milan, 1995, 82 and following. 26 See Zampone, Riflessioni sulla direttiva UE 2015/2302 relativa ai pacchetti turistici e ai servizi collegati (Reflections on EU Directive 2015/2302 on tourism packages and related services) , in Dir. trasp., 2018, 8 and following. 27 See Pagliantini, Modifiche anteriori e recesso da un contratto di pacchetto turistico secondo il canone della direttiva 2015/2302/UE: per un repertorio (frastagliato) di problemi teorici e pratici a prima lettura … (Previous changes and withdrawal from a tourist package contract according to the canon of the 2015/2302/EU directive: a fragmented collection of theoretical and practical problems at first reading), in La nuova disciplina europea dei contratti di viaggio (The New EU regulation on travel contracts). La direttiva 2015/2302/UE e le prospettive della sua attuazione nell’ordinamento italiano (The 2015/2302/EU Directive and the prospects of its implementation in the Italian legal system) , in Atti del convegno del dottorato di ricerca in diritto dell’Unione europea e ordinamenti nazionali del Dipartimento di giurisprudenza dell’Università degli studi di Ferrara , Rovigo, 19 maggio 2017, ed. by Finessi, Napoli, 2017, 75 and following. 28 See Pagliantini, Modifiche anteriori e recesso da un contratto di pacchetto turistico secondo il canone della direttiva 2015/2302/UE: per un repertorio (frastagliato) di problemi teorici e pratici a prima lettura … (Previous changes and withdrawal from a tourist package contract according to the canon of the 2015/2302/EU directive: a fragmented collection of theoretical and practical problems at first reading), quoted passage, 75 and following. 29 See art. 10, second paragraph, of the Directive 2015/2302/EU.

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