Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

138 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE for example, of travels configured by tourists on a website such as Expedia, Pepetravel and Opodo , or even through the web pages of airlines where, in addition to airline tickets, other services such as hotels or car rental are offered. All this is linked by an association agreement through a single website or through different web portals 5 . In line with this, article 3.5 of the Directive 2015/2302 6 understands that the linked travel arrangement would be the result of the assembly and contract by the customer of several tourist services using one or various websites. As a result of this action, one or various different contracts are generated with the direct service provider, as long as at least one of such services includes transportation, accommodation, motor vehicle rental or any other that is different from previous ones but would represent a significant proportion of the trip or holiday itself 7 . In view of the foregoing, it can be said that this definition has certain similarities with the concept of package travel contained in the article 151.1 a) of the General Consumer and User Protection Act, hence some authors have considered that it is the same product and, consequently, the same contract. Others, on the other hand, and a priori , notice greater similarities with the provision of individual services 8 . 5 APARICIO VAQUERO, J.P. y BATUECAS CALETRÍO, A.: “Régimen de responsabilidad en la prestación de servicios turísticos contratados como paquetes dinámicos”, Paquetes dinámicos: Problemas y soluciones jurídicas desde una perspectiva internacional, Paniza Fullana, A. (dir.), Dykinson S.L., Madrid, 2014, pp. 56 and following. 6 The Directive 2015/2302 (article 3.5) refers to dynamic packages as linked travel arrangements, and understood it as the result of contracting “ two different types of travel services purchased for the purpose of the same trip or holiday, not constituting a package, resulting in the conclusion of separate contracts with the individual travel service providers, if a trader facilitates: a) on the occasion of a single visit or contact with his point of sale, the separate selection and separate payment of each travel service by travellers; or b) in a targeted manner, the procurement of at least one additional travel service from another trader where a contract with such other trader is concluded at the latest 24 hours after the confirmation of the booking of the first travel service ”. Sensu contario , the Directive 2015/2302 understands that linked travel arrangements shall not exist when purchasing a travel service mentioned in point 1, letters a, b and c of the Directive 2015/2302, that is, when it only has been purchased transport, accommodation when this is not an intrinsic part of transport, or car rental and always for tourist purposes, as well as other tourist services, other than transport, accommodation and car rental, if such services do not represent a significant proportion of the combined value of services and are not announced as an essential characteristic of the combination or do not constitute, for some other reason, an essential characteristic of the trip or holiday. 7 This travel service is characterized by a) being composed of a plurality of tourist services; b) because these services are combined by the consumer himself during the contracting process; c) because those services are acquired from the same or several tour operators, but only if there is a commercial agreement between them; and, d) because the acquisition of these assembled products is an adhesion contract. In this regard, CAMARGO GÓMEZ, J.D.: “Contratación electrónica de paquetes dinámicos de turismo en el ordenamiento jurídico español”, ob. cit., p. 100. 8 APARICIO VAQUERO, J.P. y BATUECAS CALETRÍO, A.: “Régimen de responsabilidad en la prestación de servicios turísticos contratados como paquetes dinámicos”, ob. cit. , p. 60 understands that, despite the similarities, ultimately the price paid by travellers for all the services that make up the trip, separate irremediably these two operations.