Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1194 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE For the CNMC, this section represented an excessive risk of lack of definition, given that it was not indicated in which way or how the amount would be determined. It was not indicated either whether that adaptation would correspond to the provider individually or if it would be defined afterwards in the autonomous regions regulations. For this reason, the CNMC recommended more precision when setting the coverage, insisting that it should be done according to objective parameters. The second recommendation referred to article 151, where the definitions are set. This article excludes from the scope of application of package travel and linked travel arrangements all those tourist services that do not represent a significant proportion equal to or greater than 25% of the value of the combination and that constitute an essential feature of the trip. Bearing in mind that the main objective of the law is to increase the protection of consumers who hire this type of travel, this setting of a minimum threshold needs justification or at least needs some nuance. It is true that the Directive included, in recital 18, that threshold, but established it as a minimum. In that sense, the CNMC suggested that, being a minimum threshold, it could include these additional services as part of the package travel depending on the importance of those linked travel arrangements themselves, and not so much on the amount of the combination. The Directive already pointed out that even when these additional services were excluded, the provisions of the Directive itself should never be infringed (Recital 18). On the other hand, and, again, to strengthen consumer protection, the CNMC considered that travellers should be informed of this circumstance so that they could make the decision that best suits their interests. Finally, as a third comment on the draft, the CNMC recommended specifying whether the reference to insolvency referred to partial breaches of the contract or to the special insolvency regime included in the insolvency and commercial regulations. For this purpose, it suggested a clarification with a reference to the specific regulations, to avoid any confusion. V. FINAL APPROVAL OF THE PACKAGE TRAVEL REGULATION IN SPAIN With the approval of the Royal Decree-Law, in December 2018, certain aspects of the initial draft were modified.