Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

SLOVAKIA | MONIKA JURČOVÁ 1149 clearly until new regulation came into effect; the tour operators (organisers) specialized on selling packages to Croatia without transportation sold the accommodation plus boarding plus cleaning or other services as a package. New rules (or more precisely, their interpretation under point 17 of the Directive’s Preamble) probably opened the possibility for these operators to undergrade to retailers facilitating accommodation service abroad. Such practice may lead to substantial restriction of the liability of retailer and decrease of traveller’s protection taking in the account the cross-border contract between tourist and accommodation provider. Comparing with the previous regulation, the implementation of the right of a traveller to make a complaint within a two-year period (Sec. 22 Art. 9 of New Package Travel Act) may be considered impractical when compared with the previous regulation in the Civil Code (the customer shall exercise his right in writing without delay, at least within three months of the end of the tour, or if the tour has not been accomplished, of the day when the tour was supposed to end under the contract, otherwise the right shall become defunct). New rules must be interpreted in connection with the traveller’s obligation to notify defects without delay (Sec. 22 Art. 2 of New Package Travel Act) and the existence of an official record, possibly also with the traveller’s obligation to carry the burden of proof. New legal regulation neither in the new Directive nor in the New Package Travel Act explicitly addresses issues of facultative tours or trips 29 , but with regard to the Directive’s Preamble, services purchased after the traveller’s arrival at the hotel do not constitute package 30 , therefore the responsibility of the person selling the trip will be governed by general rules of legal regulation (procurement of goods, brokerage). Under Article 9 of Directive, notice concerning the change of traveller given at the latest seven days before the start of the package shall in any event be deemed to be reasonable (Article 18 of New Package Travel Act). From the beginning; the organisers find this rule extremely harsh in relation to practices 29 See Jurčová, M. Fakultatívne výlety – otázky nad zodpovednosťou cestovnej kancelárie (The facultative trips, the questions pertaining to the liability of the tour organiser). In: Súkromné právo. ISSN 1339-8652. Vol. 1, No. 5 (2015), p. 2-10. 30 See also point 18 of the Directive’s Preamble, specifically: “ 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.”.