Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

SWEDEN | JONAS THYBERG 1205 According to article 12 of the Travel Guarantees Act, the Government shall decide which authority shall be in charge of decisions according to the act. It is this authority that decides whether or not a travel agency shall lodge guarantee and, if so, the size of the guarantee. The same authority decides if a traveller is entitled to compensation from the guarantee if his or her travel services are not performed in accordance with the contract. The Government has issued a regulation in which The Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency ( sw. Kammarkollegiet) is pointed out as the relevant authority. Decisions by the authority regarding the obligation to lodge security, the size of the guarantee or the application imposement of sanction fee might be appealed in court. CONCLUSION As stated above, the Directive does not include any major changes for the Swedish travel trade. Since we already had a system where travel agencies had to lodge security for combinations of transport and accommodation, not constituting a package travel, Swedish agencies has already been obligated to lodge security for the majority of the combinations covered by the scope of the Directive. Since the definition of package travel is widened, more travellers will be covered by the protection, which probably will lead to higher costs for the companies and more cases being brought before the courts and the National board for Consumer Complaints.Travel agencies providingMICE will encounter difficulties, since these trips has not been covered by the previous act. Some of these travel agencies will try to get their customers to sign agreements on business travels in order to fall outside the scope, where others will accept the fact that they have a liability towards the travellers and an obligation to lodge security. The attempt to include travel services purchased through linked booking processes (Article 3.2(v) of the Directive), will most likely not have an impact in Sweden, since travel agencies, as far as I am aware of, do not transmit the traveller’s name, payment details and e-mail address to the second trader. The possibility to lodge security in other ways than before, will hopefully make it easier and less costly for travel agencies to lodge security. There is already some 80 travel agencies that have chosen to lodge security through deposits with the authority. This possibility has so far, mostly been used by small, new businesses.