Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

MALTA | JACQUELINE TANTI-DOUGALL 1033 Indeed, all travel agents who are contributing to the insolvency fund have their name duly registered on the Malta Tourism Authority’s website 21 , which renders the process very transparent. It could be safely stated that in view of the above, it is the author’s opinion that the consumer 22 /traveller is not on the same level playing field when purchasing a package holiday from a travel agent, as when one is purchasing directly the travel package from an online platform such as from a Maltese registered airline company. The author would also like to emphasise that the restriction in this paper is through the Maltese lenses. However, through easy access, a Maltese person could also visit an online European aviation company, book the flights from Malta to another destination, the hotel and a car-hire therefrom and pay accordingly, within the 24-hour rule. Technically speaking one should be covered under the same rules of reciprocity in line with Article 17 of the EU Travel Package Directive (Article 16 of S.L. 409.19). Consequently, is the consumer covered by the Insolvency Fund of that Member State, if no certificates have been issued, nor any insolvency contributions have been made to the other EU Member State? However, the questions raised herein are neither answered by the European Commission reports quoted above, as it concluded that “ there is a strong call from stakeholders and authorities for guidance on the application of the current rules to bring more clarity, legal certainty and uniformity.” 23 5. ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCY VERSUS OFFICE BASED TRAVEL AGENCY It must be made clear that a Maltese registered company which has an online travel agency would be still deemed to require a licence issued from the Malta Travel Authority in order to operate fromMalta. In this respect, a web-page tourism operation would always need a registered address which may be acting as an “operational office” in Malta and should it be 21 https://www.mta.com.mt/en/insolvency-fund as accessed on 27 June 2019. 22 The term“consumer” is used in the PackageTravelInsolvency FundRegulations, whereas `traveller` is used in the Package Travel and Linked Travel ArrangementsRegulations. 23 Page 8 of the Commission Staff Working Document (Accompanying the document), dated 21 June 2019, SWD (2019) 270 final.