Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

130 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE 4.14. Definition (10) – Establishment The definition of ‘establishment’, in the Directive 2006/123/EC of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market, reads as follow: “‘establishment’ means the actual pursuit of an economic activity, as referred to in Article 43 of the Treaty, by the provider for an indefinite period and through a stable infrastructure from where the business of providing services is actually carried out” (Article 4/5). 4.15. Definition (11) – Durable medium In the 1990 Directive, the intention of the consumer takes shape on the brochure, which has a determining role in pre-contractual and contractual arrangements. Therefore, “the organiser of the package and/or the retailer of it should be under obligation to ensure that in descriptive matter relating to packages which they respectively organise and sell, the information which is given is not misleading and brochures made available to consumers contain information which is comprehensible and accurate” (whereas 11). On that line, “the consumer needs to have a record of the terms of contract applicable to the package; whereas this can conveniently be achieved by requiring that all the terms of the contract be stated in writing of such other documentary form as shall be comprehensible and accessible to him, and that he be given a copy thereof ” (whereas 12). Following the emergence of the Internet, the static brochure underpinning the 1990 Directive leads to other alternatives to combining travel services and to information being made available through less expensive and more sustainable means, namely links. The traditional package holiday gradually loses its importance while online platforms gain the consumers’ preference. The precontractual and contractual information also undergo an evolution, dematerialising, simplifying and reducing formalities. As the ‘Proposal’ mentions: “(23) (…) in light of new communication technologies, there is no longer any need to lay down specific rules on brochures, while it is appropriate to ensure that, in certain circumstances, changes impacting the contract performance are communicated between the parties on a durable medium accessible for future reference. It should always be possible tomake changes to that information where both parties to the contract expressly agree on that”. In Article 3/11 ‘durable medium’ is defined as “any instrument which enables the traveller or the trader to store information addressed personally to him in a way accessible for future reference for a period of time adequate for the purposes