Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

144 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE IV.1. Essential information for the consumer As far as the first measure is concerned, article 19 of the Directive 2015/2302 recognizes a certain duty of information imposed on the operator that facilitate the contracting of the different elements which may form linked travel arrangements or a dynamic package. This obligation implies that the tour operator shall clearly indicate that the passenger will not be entitled to any of the rights which are exclusively applicable to package travel under the Directive 2015/2302, and it will also clarify that each service provider will be solely responsible for the correct contractual provision of the service, so the passenger is not acquiring a package travel and, consequently, fails to be covered by the regulation that affects this contract (article 19.2 of the Directive 2015/2302) 19 . The tour operator will therefore point out that the only person responsible for the correct provision of the contracted services is the direct provider. In order to comply with this article, the trader who provides linked travel arrangements shall provide the passenger with this information using the form available in Annex II. In the event that, due to the special nature of the linked travel arrangement, these are not included in any of the forms listed in the Annex, the trader may communicate this information by any other means that leaves evidence of the content of the information offered. The fulfillment of this duty is important because, only if the provided information is adequate, can we conclude that the operator that provides the linked travel arrangement will not be responsible for the disagreements that results from its execution. On the other hand, when the tour operator does not 19 The Directive 2015/2302, in its Annex II, proposes different forms with texts with the following tenor: “ If, after selecting and paying for one travel service, you book additional travel services for your trip or holiday via our company/XY, you will NOT benefit from rights applying to packages under Directive (EU) 2015/2302. Therefore, our company/XY will not be responsible for the proper performance of those additional travel services. In case of problems please contact the relevant service provider ”. At this point MARTÍNEZ ESPÍN, P.: “Impacto sobre la protección del consumidor de la propuesta de Directiva del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo relativa a los viajes combinados y los servicios asistidos de viaje, por la que se modifican el Reglamento (EC) No. 2006/2004 y la Directiva 2011/83/UE y por la que se deroga la Directiva 90/314/ CEE”, ob. cit. , p. 105, says that, “Submission of travel services provided by several operators focusing only on the obligation to declare that they do not constitute a package travel and to ensure protection against insolvency would increase transparency for consumers and ensure fair competition, while avoiding the unnecessary costs associated with all the obligations applying to package travel”. (Translated to English). In addition, he believes this “less strict regime could be particularly beneficial for SMEs that currently sell organized trips sold by a single or by several operators, as they may have difficulties in assuming responsibility for the execution of all services provided by different operators. These companies could adapt their activities to only have to comply with some of the requirements imposed by the Directive (protection against insolvency and the obligation to set out the clause that “It is not a package trip”)”. (Translated to English).