Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1146 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE for assessing whether it is package travel, could be a positive step forward in terms of legal certainty. According to the Directive, complementary services do not represent a significant proportion of the value of the combination, they are not promoted as an essential element of the combination nor otherwise represent its essential element, and according to Sec. 3 Art. 2 (a) of the New Package Travel Act “ such other travel services are not provided as a material component of the combination of travel services or do not otherwise constitute a material component thereof or if the price of such other travel services does not amount to more than 25% of the total price of the combination of travel services. ” 19 . The reasons for alarm among providers of accommodation has been fuelled by the fact that the new legal regulation no longer contains explicitly negative definition of package travel as it has been so far contained in the “old” Package Travel Act 20 , under which the provision of accommodation services by entities operating under a specific regulation is not considered package travel 21 . • The positive is the balance of regulation of the change in the cost of package travel by taking into account both eventualities (increase and decrease of price) 22 together with determining the 8% price change threshold 23 as an indicator of a substantial change in the contract, specifying the possibilities of unilateral changes to the contract, stating the minimum period to assign package travel to another traveller, clarifying situations which give rise to 19 See also point 18 of the new Directive’s Preamble: “ Other tourist services which are not intrinsically part of carriage of passengers, accommodation or the rental of motor vehicles or certain motorcycles, may be, for instance, admission to concerts, sport events, excursions or event parks, guided tours, ski passes and rental of sports equipment such as skiing equipment, or spa treatments. However, if such services are combined with only one other type of travel service, for instance accommodation, this should lead to the creation of a package or linked travel arrangement only if they account for a significant proportion of the value of the package or linked travel arrangement, or are advertised as or otherwise represent an essential feature of the trip or holiday. If other tourist services account for 25% or more of the value of the combination, those services should be considered as representing a significant proportion of the value of the package or linked travel arrangement. It should be clarified that where other tourist services are added, for instance, to hotel accommodation, booked as a stand-alone service, after the traveller’s arrival at the hotel, this should not constitute a package. This should not lead to circumvention of this Directive, with organisers or retailers offering the traveller the selection of additional tourist services in advance and then offering conclusion of the contract for those services only after the performance of the first travel service has started. ”. 20 Zákon č. 281/2001 Z. z. o zájazdoch, podmienkach podnikania cestovných kancelárií a cestovných agentúr a o zmene a doplnení Občianskeho zákonníka v znení neskorších predpisov v znení zákona č. 95/2002 Z. z., zákona č. 747/2004 Z. z., zákona č. 186/2006 Z. z. a zákona č. 136/2010 Z. z. 21 Sec. 2 Art. 3 (c) of Act No. 281/2001 Coll. as amended until 31 December 2018. 22 Applying in practice is questionable (author’s note). 23 At the expense of the consumer, there’s an unutilized inspiration by the legal regulation according to which an increase of 2% is covered at the expense of the tour operator agency and does not affect the traveller, see Jurčová, op. cit., p.62.