Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1174 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE protection afforded to passengers, including these new forms of procurement, increases transparency, eliminates ambiguities and fills existing legislative gaps. The main goal of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 is raising the level of protection for passengers, as well as to align the provisions in the field of travel agencies in all Member States. Although the aforementioned Directive indicated 1 January 2018 as the deadline for its transposition and 1 July for its entry into force, it was not until 3 November 2017 that the Draft Law was published in Spain. This necessitated procedures to reach an urgent agreement, with the aim of adopting the relevant regulatory amendments in time for their entry into force on the date set out in Directive (EU) 2015/2302. This processing delay generated major concerns in the travel agency sector, which saw how they arrived in the middle of the tourist season without having a definitive normative text. Finally, the Spanish Government adopted Royal Decree-Law 23/2018, of 21 December, of transposition of directives on trademarks, rail transport and combined journeys and related travel services (LVC), published on 27 December 2018 in the Official Gazette of the State. This rule came into effect the day after its publication, that is, on 28 December, and was met with criticism from the sector because the immediate implementation prevented an adaptation to the new regulatory framework. The LVC amends the recast text of the General Act for the Protection of Consumers and Users, as well as other complementary laws, in order to transpose Directive (EU) 2015/2302 into national law. The following is a compilation and analysis of the most important aspects of the LVC, taking into account that the Spanish norm is structured in the matter discussed herein and follows the systematic Community norms regarding: • a set of general provisions, including the scope of application and definitions, as well as common provisions on liability; • the package travel scheme, which introduces the information and content requirements of the contract; amendments to the contract before the start of the package voyage; termination of the contract; performance; and guarantee arrangements; • the special regime for linked travel arrangements, regulating insolvency protection requirements and reporting requirements.