Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

LITHUANIA | DANGUOLĖ BUBLIENĖ AND IEVA NAVICKAITĖ-SAKALAUSKIENĖ 1005 cumulative conditions – when this possibility is stated in the contract and when the traveller has a right to price reduction. It can be called “a mirror reflection rule”, because a certain right is provided to the organiser, only when the adequate right is entitled to the counterparty, in order to reach the balance between the rights and obligations of both contract parties. National law does not reflect this balance between the rights of the contract parties, simply stating, in Article 6.752/1 (3), that “the tourist shall be entitled to a price reduction, when the savings referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article have been made“. This right to a price reduction is not matched with the organiser’s right to increase the price and the requirement to state it in the contract. In the authors’ view, this inconformity with the Travel Directive provisions will cause uncertainties when applying this norm in practice. First of all, because it confers the tourist with too wide rights, enabling him to demand a price reduction at any time and therefore, causing the need to evaluate the adequacy of the travel service’s price. Second of all, it can be considered an unreasonable burden to the organiser, who might be constrained to prove his business model and the details of the price. Article 6.752 (4) transposes Article 10 (5) of the Travel Directive, which states that “in the event of a price decrease, the organiser shall have the right to deduct actual administrative expenses from the refund owed to the traveller“. It is worth noting that the national norm imposing the right of the price reduction includes not only the specific situations referred to in points (a), (b) and (c), of paragraph 1, of Article 10, of the Travel Directive, but also all the other situations in which the price reduction is allowed, i.e. the inadequate performance of the package travel contract, unless the tour organiser can prove the tourist’s fault; the proposed alternative package tour services result in a package tour of a lower quality than that specified in the package travel contract, etc. On the one hand, the decision of the national legislator to bring, into just one article, all situations when the price reduction brings more legal clarity, on the other hand, the right to deduct actual administrative expenses should be applicable only to the specific situations referred to, and not be applicable when the organiser is liable for the misperformance of the contract. The issue of price reduction as the remedy, applicable in cases of misperformance of the package will be discussed in the subsequent part. 4.4. Lack of conformity and related remedies The notion of ‘lack of conformity’, provided in Article 3 (13) of the Travel Directive, means a “failure to perform or improper performance of the travel