Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

PROPOSAL FOR A DIRECTIVE 1243 1.2.2. Unnecessary compliance costs and obstacles to cross-border trade Some of the provisions of the Directive have become outdated or otherwise create unnecessary burden for companies, such as information requirements for brochures and the inclusion of managed business trips. Legal fragmentation through numerous discrepancies in the laws of the Member States generates additional costs for businesses wishing to trade cross-border. 1.2.3. Consumer detriment – unclear and outdated rules The “Consumer Detriment Study in the area of Dynamic Packages” 10 estimated the yearly personal consumer detriment 11 in relation to combined travel arrangements where the applicability of the Directive is uncertain. The study showed that problems with such travel arrangements are more frequent and more detrimental to consumers than problems related to traditional packages which are clearly covered by the Directive. To a certain extent also consumers who buy traditional pre-arranged packages suffer detriment, because some provisions of the Directive are outdated, unclear or leave gaps, e.g. the absence of a right for consumers to cancel the package before the departure. 1.3. Objectives of the proposal In accordance with Article 114 of the Treaty, the overall objective of the revised proposal is to enhance the functioning of the Internal Market and achieve a high level of consumer protection through the approximation of rules on packages and other combinations of travel services. The proposal seeks to establish a level playing field between operators, remove legal obstacles to cross-border trade and reduce compliance costs for businesses. At the same time, it aims to achieve a high level of consumer protection and reduce consumer detriment by clarifying which combinations of travel services are protected under EU package travel rules and replacing unclear and outdated provisions. It contains mandatory rules for the protection of travellers, which Member States or traders may not derogate from to the detriment of consumers. 1.4. Consistency with other policies and objectives of the Union During the last decade the Commission undertook a comprehensive review of the consumer acquis leading to the adoption of Directive 2008/122/EC on timeshare and Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights. The revision of Directive 90/314/EEC is part of this exercise. 10 http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/strategy/docs/study_consumer_detriment.pdf. 11 Consumer detriment is defined as negative outcomes for individual consumers relative to some benchmark such as reasonable expectations. It focuses on ex post outcomes for those consumers who have a negative experience, comprising financial and non-financial detriment, including loss of time.