Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

POLAND | PIOTR CYBULA 1073 definition of tourist services 19 and the introduction of the concept of a customer instead of a consumer 20 . Consequently, due to significant differences regarding some issues, the conclusions of the comparison of Directive 90/314 and Directive 2015/2302 cannot be easily transferred to the assessment of how the provisions implementing the previous and the new Directive have changed 21 . III. ACT ON PACKAGE TRAVEL AND LINKED TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS AS A LEGAL ACT IMPLEMENTING DIRECTIVE 2015/2302 INTO POLISH LAW Taking the process of implementing Directive 90/314 in Poland into account, there was some concern that the implementation of Directive 2015/2302 in Polish law may also cause some problems 22 . Finally, as a result of legislative work, the Act of 24 November 2017 on package travel and linked travel arrangements 23 (hereafter referred to as: the A.P.T. or the Act), was passed. When assessing the implementation of Directive 2015/2302, it should first of all be appreciated that the Polish legislator adopted the implementing act within the required time (before 1 January 2018), and within the required time it entered into force (1 July 2018). As it is known, some EU legislators did not manage to do this. Considering the limited framework of this article, as well as its purpose, only some problems related to this legal act can be highlighted. From the point of view of the addressees of this paper, most interesting seems to be what is specific about the Polish implementation of Directive 2015/2302, in particular, the cases which may be considered as flawed implementation of the EU Directive. 19 Such a definition, alike Directive 2015/2302 (“travel services”) and unlike Directive 90/314, was contained in the Act on tourist services. According to Art. 3(1) of this Act, tourist services are tourist guide services, hotel services and all other services provided to tourists or visitors. 20 In accordance with recital 7, the last sentence, of Directive 2015/2302, “In order to avoid confusion with the definition of the term “consumer” used in other Union legislation, persons protected under this Directive should be referred to as “travellers”. For the same reason, in the Act on tourist services, the concept of customer was introduced instead of consumer. 21 See P. Cybula, Aksjologia zmiany prawa konsumenckiego na przykładzie implementacji w Polsce dyrektywy 2015/2302 w sprawie imprez turystycznych i powiązanych usług turystycznych , “Folia Turistica” 2018, No. 49, p. 129. 22 See P. Cybula, H. Zawistowska, Ocena funkcjonowania ustawy o usługach turystycznych i pytania o kierunki przyszłej regulacji , “Studia Oeconica Posnaniensia” 2017, vol. 5, No. 4, p. 43 et seq. 23 Dz. U., item 2361. The course of legislative work is discussed in more detail by J. Gospodarek, Implementacja nowej dyrektywy turystycznej z 2015 r. do systemu prawa polskiego , [in:] B. Gnela, E. Sługocka-Krupa, M. Szaraniec, A. Viglianisi Ferraro (eds.), Prawo konsumenckie w Polsce oraz innych państwach UE. Zagadnienia wybrane , Warsaw 2019, Legalis.