Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

SWEDEN | JONAS THYBERG 1201 compensation shall put the suffering party in the same situation as before. This means that a traveller that has suffered damage shall not be overcompensated, thus it was not deemed necessary to include a provision on deduction. According to Article 14.6 of the Directive, the limitation period in the national legislation may not be less than two years. In the new Swedish act, a provision regarding complaints (chapter 4 article 2), corresponding to Article 13.2 of the Directive, has been implemented, obligating a traveller to inform the organiser without undue delay of any lack of conformity. The Swedish legislator noted that since complaints must be introduced within reasonable time, there is no need to include a limitation period in the new act. Claims according to the new Package Travel Act are therefore subject to the general limitation period according to Swedish law, which means that claims may not be brought more than ten years after the detection of the lack of conformity. In chapter 4 article 13 of the new act, the right of redress according to Article 22 of the Directive has been implemented. The text of this article deviates from the text of the Directive. Article 13 states that: “ to the extent an organiser or retailer pays compensation to or in some other way compensates a traveller for lack of conformity in the package travel, the organiser or reseller enters into the right of the traveller to claim compensation from the one who caused the error .”. However, according to the legislator, the intention has not been to change the meaning of the article in relation to the Directive. Chapter 5 – Linked Travel Arrangements The provisions regarding linked travel arrangements are new and include a major difference compared to the 1994 Directive. For the trade in Sweden, however, this is not entirely a new scheme. There were similar provisions in the old Travel Guarantees Act. Due to the new ways of booking travel, especially online, the Swedish legislator found that many travellers purchased combinations of travel services that were not covered by the existing protection rules. Therefore, a new provision was incorporated in the travel guarantees act in 2001. This provision obligated a travel agent that sold combinations of transportation and accommodation which together bore a significant similarity with a package travel, to lodge security to protect the traveller if the travel was cancelled. The new provisions of linked travel arrangements thus do not bring a major change for the Swedish travel agencies. The provisions on linked travel arrangements have been implemented in line with the wording of the Directive. The new rules have been criticized by both