Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

PROPOSAL FOR A DIRECTIVE 1251 4.6. Information requirements for assisted travel arrangements (Article 17) To ensure legal certainty and transparency for the parties, retailers offering assisted travel arrangements have to explain to travellers in a clear and prominent manner that only the relevant service providers are liable for performance of the services and that travellers will not benefit from any of the Union rights granted to package travellers, except the right to a refund of pre-payments and, where relevant, to repatriation in case the retailer itself or any of the service providers becomes insolvent. 4.7. General provisions (Articles 18 – 26) Article 18 contains particular rules for packages where the organiser it established outside the EEA. Under Article 19, retailers involved in the booking of packages and assisted travel arrangements are liable for booking errors. Article 20 clarifies that this Directive does not affect the organiser’s right to seek redress from third parties. Article 21 confirms the imperative nature of the Directive. Article 22 on enforcement is a standard provision in the consumer acquis. Article 23 is a standard provision on penalties for infringements of the national provisions transposing this Directive. Similar provisions can be found in the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) and in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC). Article 24 obliges the Commission to submit a report on the application of this Directive to the European Parliament and the Council. Article 25 (2) amends Directive 2011/83 on consumer rights to ensure that that Directive applies fully to assisted travel arrangements and that certain general consumer rights apply also to packages. 4.8. Final provisions (Articles 27 – 29) Article 26 repeals Directive 90/314/EEC. Article 27 is a standard provision on transposition and fixes a transposition time-limit of 18 months. Articles 28 and 29 are standard provisions. 5. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS The proposal has very limited budgetary implications. The only operational costs relate to the preparation of the report on the application of this Directive, covering the preparatory work of an external contractor, i.e. operational appropriation of €0.2 million under the Rights and Citizenship programme, as well as administrative expenditure of around €0,184 million during seven years after the adoption of the Directive. This expenditure will be borne by internal redeployment and not entail an increase in the funds.