Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

702 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE The idea behind is to encompass all the probable cases even beyond the definition or the ambiguities of Directive (EU) 2015/2302. Indeed, the choice of using “travel service” as a generic term for tourist services while it has a clear travel-related connotation was not a happy one for the EU legislator. There is no transmission into the national reality of the legislative option provided for by Art. 13 (1) second subparagraph of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 for a subsidiary responsibility of a retailer, along with this of the organiser, for the performance of the package. The retailer does not appear as a legal figure in the Tourism Act although the closest correspondence to it is the travel agent who sells or offers for sale travel packages prepared by a tour operator 19 . It has been retained inappropriate to put on the same level the creator and organiser of the travel package and the simple re-translator of the already organised package, i.e. the seller. On the other hand, the general provision of Art. 20 of Directive (EU) 2015/2302, treating with the responsibility of a retailer when the organiser of its travel packages is established outside the European Economic Area, has been duly transposed with the same volume of obligations as requires by this provision 20 . In the special case of responsibility of Art. 14 of Directive (EU) 2015/2302, concerning the price reduction and the compensation for damages for the (non) performance of a package travel contract, the provision concerning the equal or restricted responsibility of a provider and the tour operator has been followed taking as a starting point the ratification by Bulgaria, not by the EU as required, of the international treaty which will be decisive for defining such a responsibility 21 . The other important guarantee for the consumers concern their protection in case of insolvency/bankruptcy of the tour operators and the traders facilitating the provision of linked travel services. This section of the Tourism Act is very detailed and deals exclusively with the insurance to be established in favour of the traveller. An aleatory contract has to be concluded between the Bulgarian tour operator and an insurer on an annual basis with its effects occurring in the event of the tour operator’s insolvency 22 . A copy of the contract has to be submitted to the Minister of Tourism who publish on the 19 § 1, point 62 of the Additional provisions to the Tourism Act. 20 Art. 109a of the Tourism Act. 21 Art. 91 (4) and (5) of the Tourism Act. 22 Art. 97 and the following of the Tourism Act.