Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

140 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE III. THE LEGAL SITUATION OF THE DYNAMIC PACKAGE ACCORDING TO OUR LEGISLATION Until the approval of the Directive 2015/2302, stating the differences between the dynamic package and the package travel has been a controversial issue in our doctrine. In this regard, two opposing doctrinal positions have been maintained. On the one hand, a sector considers that the dynamic package is a modality within the general category of the package travel, while others, among which I stand, share the position of the European legislator when understanding that we are dealing with different products, which, consequently, require a differentiated regulation that foresees and protects the rights and duties of the subjects involved in such contracts. Those who defend the first hypothesis rely, fundamentally, on the broad concept of the package travel included in the Ruling of the Court of 30 April 2002 10 , which defends that when talking about a package travel, it is described as a classic trip previously organized by the agency for general commercialization and created at the request of the consumer 11 . Thus, the fact that the offers of the different providers of tourist services are gathered on the same website to which the consumer has access, or even that the corresponding pages have links in the main page to the rest of the websites of companies that offer tourism services, can be considered a previous work of organization, even if minimally so, which would allow the application for the dynamic packages that consumers enjoy nowadays with the package travel. Consequently, article 150 and the following articles of the General Consumer and User Protection Act should be applied 12 . 10 Ruling of the Court of 30 April 2002: “ [t]he term package travel must be interpreted so as to include holidays organized by travel agents, at the request of and in accordance with the specifications of a consumer or limited group of consumers. (…) There is nothing in that definition to suggest that holidays organized at the request and in accordance with the specifications of a consumer or a defined group of consumers cannot be considered as ‘package’ holidays within the meaning of the Directive” . 11 PANIZA FULLANA, A.: “Nuevas tecnologías aplicadas al turismo y sus consecuencias jurídicas: Los paquetes dinámicos”, Paquetes dinámicos: Problemas y soluciones jurídicas desde una perspectiva internacional, Paniza Fullana, A. (dir.), Dykinson S.L., Madrid, 2014, p. 17. 12 This is how it is defended by, among others, GONZÁLEZ FERNÁNDEZ, M.B.: “¿Nueva regulación de los viajes combinados?, Revista de Derecho Mercantil, num. 269, 2008, p. 1067; MÁRQUEZ LOBILLO, P.: “El consumidor en la contratación electrónica de servicios turísticos”, Revista de Derecho Mercantil, num. 282, 2011, p. 235; and, CAMARGO GÓMEZ, J.D.: “Contratación electrónica de paquetes dinámicos de turismo en el ordenamiento jurídico español”, ob. cit., pp. 103 y s.; o APARICIO VAQUERO, J.P. y BATUECAS CALETRÍO, A.: “Régimen de responsabilidad en la prestación de servicios turísticos contratados como paquetes dinámicos”, ob. cit., p. 64.