Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

SLOVAKIA | MONIKA JURČOVÁ 1153 Sec. 16 Art. 8 of the new Package Travel Act, an obligation is imposed on the trader to which the information about a traveller was sent and who entered into a contract with the traveller that resulted in the creation of package travel under the Sec. 16 Art. 6, to inform the tour operator, who had sent the trader the traveller’s details, of the conclusion of the contract and provide to the tour operator the information required for complying with its obligations pursuant to the Act. In this case (Sec. 3 Art. 1 (b) point 5), the tour operator which concluded the first contract is responsible for providing the package travel as a whole, and this tour operator is obliged to provide the traveller with information on creation of the package travel as soon as possible under Sec. 16 Art. 4 on a durable medium. As already said above, under Sec. 5 Art. 3 of the New Package Travel Act, only a tour operator has the exclusive right to enter into package travel contracts in its own name, through another trader or in association with another trader, or to send data pertaining to a traveller to another trader pursuant to Sec. 3 Art. 1 (b) point 5. As for the provider of individual travel services, on the basis of separate contracts on the provision of travel services, the providers can be accommodation facilities, carriers, lessors of certain means of transport or other tour operators. The tour operator that has facilitated these services in the alternatives according to the points above will have the status of the contracting party to the package travel contract. Based on this categorization, the status of the tour operator agency must be distinguished: a) as a direct provider of package travel concluded under one package travel contract (to date the prevailing practice in the package travel market), which corresponds to the situation in particular under the Sec. 3 Art. 1 (a) of the Package Travel Act and b) as a party to the package travel contract concluded by the completion of the facilitation process of individual travel services provided under separate contracts under the Sec. 3 Art. 1 (b) of the Package Travel Act. Alternative of separate contracts can be implemented both in the internet world and in the physical presence of the parties. In relation to the alternative of separate contracts that create the package travel contract, it is necessary to highlight the duty of the tour operator in the area of a) pre-contractual information obligations, b) handing-over confirmation of the conclusion of the contract or the contract itself,