Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1248 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE 4. EXPLANATION OF THE PROPOSAL The proposal consists of 29 articles and two annexes (a table relating articles of Directive 90/314/EEC to articles of this proposal and the Legislative financial statement). 4.1. Subject-matter, scope and definitions (Articles 1-3) Article 1 sets out the subject-matter of the Directive. In conjunction with the definitions of ‘package’ and ‘assisted travel arrangement’ contained in Article 3, Article 2 determines its scope, taking into account the different ways in which travel services can be combined. Based on the way in which travel services are presented to the traveller, combinations which meet any of the alternative criteria laid down in Article 3 (2) will be considered as packages with the associated legal consequences for information requirements, liability and insolvency protection. Combinations where retailers, through linked booking processes, facilitate the procurement of additional travel services in a targeted manner or where the traveller concludes contracts with the individual service providers and where the defining features of a package, e.g. an inclusive or total price, are not present, are defined as ‘assisted travel arrangements’. Retailers who are in the business of facilitating the purchase of ‘assisted travel arrangements’ are subject to the requirement to explain clearly to travellers that only the individual service providers are liable for the performance of the travel services concerned. Furthermore, with a view to ensuring a certain layer of additional, Union- -wide protection compared to the one stemming from rules on passenger rights or general consumer acquis also for travellers buying more than one travel service through them, it is appropriate to provide that such retailers have to ensure that, in case of their own insolvency or the insolvency of any of the service providers, travellers will receive a refund of their pre-payments and, where relevant, will be repatriated. Since it is not appropriate to grant the same level of protection to business travellers whose travel arrangements are made on the basis of a framework contract concluded between their employers and specialised operators often offering, on a business-to-business basis, a level of protection similar to the one stemming from this Directive (so-called managed business travel), such travel arrangements are excluded from the scope. Other limitations of the scope are maintained, including for so-called occasionally organised packages. Apart from ‘packages’ and ‘assisted travel arrangements’ Article 3 defines other key terms of the Directive, including ‘traveller’, ‘organiser’, ‘retailer’ and ‘unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances’. The ‘organiser’ is defined as a trader who combines and sells/ offers for sale packages, either directly or through/together with another trader. Organisers are liable for the performance of the package (Articles 11 and 12), for providing assistance to the traveller (Article 14) and procuring insolvency protection (Article 15).