Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

SWEDEN | JONAS THYBERG 1203 THE TRAVEL GUARANTEES ACT According to the provisions of chapter V and VI of the Directive, the Member States are required to ensure that a travel guarantee scheme is in place to protect the travellers in case of the organiser’s or the trader’s insolvency. In Sweden, the rules regarding travel guarantees have been implemented through a separate act, the Travel Guarantees Act. The main reason for separating the sets of rules regarding travel guarantee and place them in a separate act is mostly historical. By the time Sweden implemented the 1990 Directive, there was already a system for travel guarantees in place since the late sixties. It was therefore more convenient to implement the provisions regarding package travel in a separate act and keep the existing travel guarantees act with some changes. Since there already was a well-functioning system with separate acts, it was deemed easier to continue with two separate acts. The old Travel Guarantees Act According to the old Travel Guarantees Act, organisers and retailers were obliged to provide security for package travels according to the definition in the old Package Travel Act. Security should further be provided for combinations of transportation and accommodation that bore a significant resemblance to a package travel, for seat only sold together with a package travel, and for education travels with accommodation with a host family. For package travels, the travel guarantee should cover both consumers and business travellers. For combinations of transport and accommodation, seat only and education trips the travel guarantee should only cover consumers. The travel guarantee should, according to the previous Travel Guarantees Act, cover reimbursement to passengers for all money paid for travel services that were not performed and for repatriation of stranded passengers. Passengers had a right to compensation if the travel was cancelled or was not performed. The right to compensation occurred regardless of the reason for the cancelled trip, i.e., it was possible for travellers to claim compensation for tours that were cancelled due to airline bankruptcy, ash cloud, strike, etc. According to the old act, travel guarantee should be provided through a bank guarantee or a payment guarantee issued by an insurance company. It was possible for the authority in charge of the travel guarantees to accept other forms of security, but this has only been done in a few cases since 1967. These exemptions have concerned joint security for the members of organizations