Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1070 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE II. THE PROCESS OF IMPLEMENTING OF DIRECTIVE 90/314 INTO POLISH LAW First of all, it should be noted that in order to implement Directive 90/314, the Polish legislator passed the Act of 29 August 1997 on tourist services 5 , which is worth mentioning here for a better understanding of the implementation of the new Directive in Poland. The Act contained three main areas of regulation 6 . Firstly, the provisions which were supposed to be the implementation of Directive 90/314. Secondly, the regulations concerning tourist guides and tour leaders. Thirdly, regulations regarding hotel services. This form of regulation resulted from the fact that, irrespective of the need to implement Directive 90/314 in Polish law, a broader discussion on the need to regulate tourist services has been taking place for some time 7 . Finally, due to the pace of implementation work, it was possible to prepare regulations within this scope. The implementation of Directive 90/314 into Polish law has been gradually progressing. Although the official government announcement stated that the Act on tourist services was the implementation of Directive 90/314 in the Polish law 8 , the implementation was flawed in some respects. Some problems were relatively quickly noticed in the literature 9 and the legislator introduced changes (e.g. regulation of suitable alternative arrangements). Some problems have not been properly regulated for a number of years. In particular, due to the practical importance of the problems, two of them should be noted here. 5 Original text: Dz. U. [Journal of Laws], No. 133, item 884, as amended. 6 Thereafter, by virtue of the Act amending certain laws concerning the rights of passengers travelling by sea and inland waterway of 21 June 2013 (Dz. U. item 1014), which came into force on 19 September 2013, further provisions have been added (Chapter 5a) concerning financial penalties imposed on travel organisers and travel brokers who act in breach of the obligations or conditions set out in Article 7, Article 8(2) and (5), Article 9(3) and (4) and Article 12(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 concerning the rights of passengers when travelling by sea and inland waterway and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of 24 November 2010 (OJ L 334, p. 1) and set out in Article 9, Article 10(2) to (5), Article 14(3) and (4) and Article 15 Regulation (EU) No 181/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 concerning the rights of passengers in bus and coach transport and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004, OJ L 55, p. 1. 7 For more information on the work on the Act on tourism services, see J. Raciborski, Od idei ustawy o turystyce do ustawy o usługach turystycznych. Geneza pierwszej w Polsce ustawy turystycznej , [in:] P. Cybula (ed.), Prawne aspekty podróży i turystyki – historia i współczesność. Prace poświęcone pamięci Profesora Janusza Sondla , Cracow 2018, p. 399 et seq. 8 Stenographic report on the session of the “Sejm” II term in office of 3 December 1998, item No. 8, recording B 281. 9 See e.g. E. Łętowska, Antykonsumencki bubel , “Rzeczpospolita” of 29 July 1998; J. Raciborski, Usługi turystyczne. Przepisy i komentarz , Warsaw 1999, p. 133 et seq.