Tourism Law in Europe

11 In Sweden there is no authorisation or registration procedure for tour operators or travel agents. Anyone that wishes to market travel services is free to do so. There are of course detailed regulations for certain services or activities, which must be adhered to by these companies. If a tour operator market or sells a package travel or a linked travel arrangement, it is regulated under the Package Travel Act, which states a wide range of responsibilities for the organiser. Since the Act is implementing the package travel directive, which is a full harmonisation directive, the rules are the same as in other member states. 7.2. Travel agents A travel agent is a business that sells travel services provided by other companies, for example single travel services such as an airline ticket or a hotel accommodation, or packages put together by an organiser. Many of the Swedish travel agents combines services by different suppliers, thus acting as organiser. According to the Package Travel Act, the organiser is responsible for the performance of the package travel contract, regardless of if it is sold through a retailer or sold directly to the traveler. In the Directive there is a possibility for the member states to impose the same responsibility as the organiser on a retailer. This option has not been used by the Swedish law maker. According to Swedish case law 20 a travel agent that only acts as an intermediary when selling single travel services or package travel put together by an organiser, is not part of the agreement with the customer, and thus only responsible for its own actions or faults. The agreement is entered into between the customer and the supplier or organiser, and it is the supplier or organiser that is responsible for the proper performance of the contract. 20 See, for example, the cases HD T 3354-13 from the Supreme Court and Hovrätten för västra Sverige T 2795-03.