Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 3 | VINCENZO FRANCESCHELLI AND CARLOS TORRES 123 – In the first possibility, contemplated in point (a), there is a trip to the premises of the travel agency or a visit to the site 14 , where the traveller chooses and pays separately the different services offered. For example, traveller A enters the premises or goes to the site of agency B, choosing a flight from AirX for a weekend in Paris for 600 €. By staying at the premises or on the site after booking and paying for the flight, he can then choose hotel Y located on the banks of the Seine for 350 €. – In the second possibility, referred to in point (b) 15 , traveller. A admittedly entails an online choice rather than visiting the operator’s premises (offline purchase). In a targeted manner, the traveller acquires at least one 16 additional travel service from another operator, provided that the contract for the last service has a certain link in terms of time with the first travel service – it cannot be signed more than 24 hours after the reservation of the first service booked by the traveller. The traveller booked a flight on AirY’s website, receiving an invitation to the hotel through a confirmation link to hotelZ.com, booking and paying for the accommodation in the next twenty-four hours. The difference concerning the click-through package – organised trip stipulated in Article 3/2/(v) – is that there is no transmission of payment data and traveller’s email address from one website to another. Just as single travel service is expressly excluded, autonomous reservations of services also do not constitute a travel service connected with “travel services which travellers book independently, often at different times, even for the purpose of the same trip or holiday.”(Recital 12). Linked travel arrangements presuppose the performance of contracts and not just the provision of information, so they “should also be distinguished from linkedwebsiteswhichdonot have the objective of concluding a contract with the traveller and from links through which travellers 14 In line with recital 13 “Specific rules should be laid down for both high street and online traders which assist travellers, on the occasion of a single visit or contact with their point of sale, in concluding separate contracts with individual service providers and for online traders which, for instance, through linked online booking processes, facilitate in a targeted manner the procurement of at least one additional travel service from another trader, where a contract is concluded at the latest 24 hours after the confirmation of the booking of the first travel service. Such facilitation will often be based on a commercial link involving remuneration between the trader who facilitates the procurement of additional travel services and the other trader, regardless of the calculation method of such remuneration which might, for instance, be based on the number of clicks or on the turnover.”. 15 The rules of linked travel arrangements “would apply, for example, where, along with the confirmation of the booking of a first travel service such as a flight or a train journey, a traveller receives an invitation to book an additional travel service available at the chosen travel destination, for instance, hotel accommodation, with a link to the booking website of another service provider or intermediary. While those arrangements should not constitute packages within the meaning of this Directive, under which one organiser is liable for the proper performance of all travel services, such linked travel arrangements constitute an alternative business model that often competes closely with packages.” (recital 13). 16 It may include more than one travel service, as provided for in Article 3/1.