Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1046 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE participated. Even though a number of countries fiercely opposed it, the Convention Internationale Relative au Contract de Voyage (CCV) was adopted after a number of minor and major amendments. The treaty was signed by only twelve countries and fizzled out 6 . However, when the first European Directive on Package Travel 90/314/EEC 7 was adopted in June 1990, the Dutch bill from the 70s had still not come into force. A new Dutch Act, inspired by the Directive, was introduced, which took effect on 31 December 1992 8 . At the time the Directive on Package Travel 90/314/EEC was adopted, the majority of travellers still booked their holidays through travel agencies after studying beautiful travel brochures. This is a thing of the past. Nowadays, the majority of travellers in the Netherlands look for and book their holidays online. Either through the mediation of an online travel agency (such as D-Reizen or VakantieDiscounter) or directly with a trip organiser (such as Sunweb, TUI or a specialist like Askja). These may be ready- -made packages that have been pre-prepared by these agencies or selected individual travel services provided through these travel agencies (a hotel, a flight and a rental car). The traveller can also pick the desired elements of the trip himself through the Internet, such as booking a separate flight through one website, a rental car through a second website and a hotel through yet another website (for example, at a so-called “bed bank”) 9 . The Netherlands will not differ from other European countries in this respect 10 . The Directive on Package Travel 90/314/EEC was not equipped for this new reality within the travel industry. For this reason, a new directive on package travel and linked travel arrangements was introduced in 2015 – the Directive 2015/2302 (hereinafter: “the Directive”) – which attempts to provide an answer to all these different situations, and aims to offer the consumer (traveller) as much protection as possible. The old Directive 90/315/EEC was revoked at the same time. The Directive does expand on the Directive 90/314/EEC, but also broadens its scope. This means that case law and literature on the old Directive is still partially relevant. The goal was to ensure that the Directive covers new (more modern) ways of concluding travel agreements. The Directive aspires to the 6 Refer to the extensive pre-advice by R. Overeen LL.M., issued to the Dutch Association for Comparative Law (1976). 7 Directive of the Council of 13 June 1990 on package, travel including package holidays, and package tours (90/314/EEC). 8 GG 1992, 689. 9 We consider bed banks a type of procurement combination for hotel rooms (beds). 10 Also refer to, inter alia , preambles 2 and 8 of the Directive 2015, but especially 10.