Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

SPAIN | SERGIO CASTEL GAYÁN 1175 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS The first substantial amendment concerns the scope of application and harmonisation of provisions. With regard to the former, the LVC provides that this legal regime applies to “ the supply, contracting and performance of package travel and linked travel arrangements ” excluding travel and services referred to in Article 2.2 of Directive (EU) 2015/2302. However, the Spanish standard emphasises that the organisers of package travel or, where appropriate, retailers, as well as related travel operators, will not be exempted from legal obligations if they state that they act exclusively as providers of a travel service, as intermediaries or in any other quality, or that the services they provide do not constitute a package travel or linked travel arrangements. Considering this scope of application, the LVC incorporates, as another of its major novelties and within the framework of Directive (EU) 2015/2302, a series of definitions, thus deviating from the previous legislation. This being so, the LVC points out as a structural novelty in the new legal regime where the subject protected by the norm becomes the traveller, a broader concept than that of the consumer: “ any person who intends to enter into a contract or is entitled to travel under a contract concluded under this book ”. The list of definitions has its starting point in the concept of “travel service”, expanding the scope of the concept of “package travel” and thus accommodating many travel products that resided in legal uncertainty or were not clearly covered by the previous regulation. It is defined as one that combines two or more travel services performed by the same employer (or at the request of the traveller) before performing a single contract for the entirety of the services, and even when separate contracts are concluded with different travel service providers in certain circumstances. Where the combination includes only one of the services consisting of the transport, accommodation or rental of vehicles, the other service (other than the three above) must represent at least 25% of the value of the combination for the contract to be considered as a package travel. The LVC also introduces the concept of “linked travel arrangement” as a new category of travel, considering those that include at least two different types of travel services purchased for the same travel but contracted separately with each individual provider of those services. In this case, the role of entrepreneurs is to make it easier for travellers, in person or online, to engage in travel services, leading them to enter into contracts with different providers, including through connected the booking processes. The LVC defines the obligations of these