Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 5 | JOSEP MARIA BECH SERRAT 217 unless it is made clear with whom it has been concluded 4 . Unlike the new Package Travel Directive, the old Directive 5 did not require the organiser to mention his contact details to the traveller. Such a requirement only existed with regard to the contact details of the organiser’s local representative or, failing that, of local agencies on whose assistance a consumer in difficulty could call, or an emergency telephone number or any other information enabling the traveller to contact the organiser herself. However, for the organiser the obligation to provide also his own contact details to the traveller did follow from Article 7 paragraph 4 under (b) of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive in case there is an invitation to purchase 6 . c) Thirdly, travellers need to be aware of their rights and obligations under the contract 7 and to know about the terms and conditions of the contract under which services are provided (points (c) to (h) of Art. 5(1)). In comparison to Art. 3(2) and Art. 4 of the previous Package Travel Directive, some items were added to the main characteristics of the travel services in the new Art. 5(1): the periods of stay with dates and, where accommodation is included, the number of nights; the points, dates and time of departure and return (or, where appropriate, approximately); visits, excursion(s) or other services included in the total price agreed for the package; where it is not apparent from the context, whether the traveller will be provided with any of the travel services as part of a group and, if so, where possible, the approximate size of the group; where the traveller’s benefit from other tourist services depends on effective oral communication, the language in which those services will be carried out; whether the trip or holiday is generally suitable for persons with reduced mobility and, upon the traveller’s request, precise 4 However, the obligation to provide a telephone number before the conclusion of the contract of Art. 5.1 lit b) CRD was regarded as superfluous for an on-premises contract. Idid ., p. 36. 5 The old Package Travel Directive 90/314/CEE ( OJ 1990 L 158/59) (hereafter the old Package Travel Directive). 6 The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC ( OJ 2005 L 149/22) (hereafter UCPD) is also applicable to package travel contracts. See Marco B.M. Loos, “Precontractual information obligations for package travel contracts”, Journal of European Consumer and Market Law , 3-2016, 124-130, p. 127. 7 A similar structure for providing pre-contractual information is observed in all the EU Consumer Law directives. See Christian Twigg-Flesner and Reiner Schulze, “Protecting rational choice: information and the right of withdrawal”, in Geraint Howells, Ian Ramsay and Thomas Wilhelmsson with David Kraft (Eds.), Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law , Edward Elgar, Cheltenham and Northampton, 2011, 130- -157, pp. 131-132.