Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

540 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE arrangements” which is a combination of travel services facilitated by a trader, such as an airline. Definition of the package set out in point (b)(v) of point 2 of Article 3 represents an attempt of the legislator to respond to the challenges of flexible booking possibilities at the travel market to ensure the proper stage of the traveller’s protection 9 . As already said above, many travellers book travel services online and it is the booking process which will determine whether the traveller has booked a package, a linked travel arrangement or merely stand-alone services. This is relevant for the legal obligations of traders and for the level of protection of travellers. For stand-alone travel services (e.g. flights only), no mandatory protection of travellers against insolvency of the provider exists at EU level. Main task to consider for this report is based on “click-through” bookings. It occurs at the situation when the traveller books different travel services from different websites (different points of sale), but the bookings are related through links provided fromwebsite towebsite. However, depending on the characteristics of such bookings, they can either lead to the creation of a package with full protection, a linked travel arrangement with limited protection or stand-alone services, not covered by the Directive. The criteria for defining ‘click-through packages’ were subject to lengthy discussions during the legislative negotiations. The definition requires that the first trader transmits to the second trader the specific traveller’s personal data, i.e. the traveller’s name, payment details and email address. A ‘click-through linked travel arrangement’ requires that the first trader facilitates “in a targeted manner” the purchase of at least one additional travel service. In both cases (‘click-through package’ and ‘click-through linked travel arrangement (LTA)’) the traveller must book the second travel service within 24 hours of the booking of the first travel service. Beyond this time-limit, the different travel services are simply stand-alone travel services. The proper differentiation between the package and the linked travel arrangement is the crucial point of reference when applying the Directive because it provides a high level of protection to travellers who buy packages. This includes, inter alia : money-back guarantee and repatriation when the organiser becomes insolvent; organiser’s liability for the performance of all travel services 9 ‘package’ means a combination of at least two different types of travel services for the purpose of the same trip or holiday, if: purchased from separate traders through linked online booking processes where the traveller’s name, payment details and e-mail address are transmitted from the trader with whom the first contract is concluded to another trader or traders and a contract with the latter trader or traders is concluded at the latest 24 hours after the confirmation of the booking of the first travel service.