Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 3 | INMACULADA GONZÁLEZ CABRERA 139 The Directive 2015/2302, despite clearly referring to the regulation of package travel and linked travel arrangement or dynamic packages does not help to clarify both products and, therefore, does not seem to solve the problem. Certainly, in its eighth Whereas paragraph, it states that “[s]ince travel services may be combined in many different ways, it is appropriate to consider as packages all combinations of travel services that display features which travellers typically associate with packages, in particular where separate travel services are combined into a single travel product for which the organizer assumes responsibility for proper performance. In accordance with the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (Judgment of the Court of Justice of 30 April 2002, Club Tour, Viagens e Turismo SA v Alberto Carlos Lobo Gonçalves Garrido and Club Med Viagens Lda, C-400/00, ECLI:EU:C:2002:272), it should make no difference whether travel services are combined before any contact with the traveller or at the request of or in accordance with the selection made by the traveller. The same principles should apply irrespective of whether the booking is made through a high-street trader or online”. Obviously, this solution must be applauded because there should not be a different treatment if a “package travel” is acquired online or in person, organized in advance or at the request of the consumer. However, it is very difficult for us to share that one of the elements that configure the package travel is the responsibility assumed by the organizer, seeing as in our opinion this responsibility is the legal consequence established by the Directive (both 90/314/EEC and 2015/2302) for this concrete holiday product, differentiating it from other related figures, such as dynamic packages 9 . Furthermore, until now it has not been easy to determine whether it was a package travel contract or a linked travel arrangement, as a different product from the previous one. Getting to know this is even more complex for the consumers. Initially, the responsibility should be assumed by the traders who allow the assembly through their website, of course, if that is not clearly indicated as proposed by the Directive 2015/2302. Precisely for this reason, it does not seem logical or coherent that the determination of the type of contract depends on the information given to the consumer about the responsibility. 9 This is how we have defended it in GONZÁLEZ CABRERA, I.: “Una nueva configuración legal del viaje turístico. Del viaje combinado al paquete dinámico”, Revista Doctrinal Aranzadi Civil-Mercantil, núm. 7, julio, 2017, ed. Electrónica, p. 2.