Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1032 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE to online bookings made at different points of sale” 16 and it is manifestly clear that the said report failed miserably to adequately address this important legal aspect when it stated that “ further assessment of business practices, in particular of airlines and large travel booking platforms, in relation to click-through bookings are therefore necessary, before drawing conclusions regarding a possible adjustment of the definitions provided in the Directive.”. (Page 3 ) Moreover, as indicated in the Commission Staff Working Document (Accompanying the Document) 17 , once there was absolutely no feedback from the aviation companies, who mostly sell such click-through packages, in the author’s opinion, the study that the European Commission has presented is seriously flawed, because it is the aviation companies that mostly cover such linked packages. “ However, in the absence of feedback from the airline sector to the stakeholder consultation further studies are necessary to have a clearer picture of the prevalence of “click-through” packages on the market .” 18 The author questions whether the airline industry was ever in fact, part of the equation when considering the Package Travel Directive as one of the key players. Meanwhile, it is evident that when a consumer is purchasing an online package travel through these aviation companies, they are not being protected from any insolvency (unless they are insured, but this falls outside the scope of this paper). The question remains as to why does Regulation 3 of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations (Regulation 2 of the EU Directive) then stipulate that: “ These regulations apply to packages offered for sale or sold by traders to travellers and to linked travel arrangements facilitated by traders for travellers.” A further query would be is that Regulation 23 (9) Travel Package Regulations (S.L. 409.19) which directly refers to “ enforcement and penalties ” as referred to above, stipulates that “ this provision of regulation 23 shall 19 also apply to any trader to whom these regulations may apply, even if such trader does not operate a tourism operation which requires a licence under the Act. ” 20 16 https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/live_work_travel_in_the_eu/consumers/documents/com_2019_270 _f1_report_from_commission_en.pdf as accessed on 22 June 2019. 17 European Commission, Brussels, 21.6.2019 SWD (2019) 270 final. 18 Page 4 of SWD (2019). 19 Consequently, in the author’s opinion, this is mandatory. 20 Meaning the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act (Chapter 409 of the Laws of Malta).