Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

224 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE In consequence, I consider that the mandatory standard information requirements provided in Art. 5(1) of the new Package Travel Directive are realistic and the personalisation of information with Big Data is not still suitable as an alternative regulatory approach.The content of pre-contractual information, as provided in Art. 5(1), is adequate, despite the handicaps which were associated with the traditional approach of regarding pre-contractual information as a sort of a marketing tool. Taking this perspective, Art. 5 of the new Package Travel Directive is replacing the core of the information that traders have to provide prior to the conclusion of all consumer contracts as provided in Art. 5 CRD 38 . 3. A FRAGILE MEDIUM FOR PROVIDING PRE-CONTRACTUAL INFORMATION AFTER AN IMPORTANT DEBATE Before the evolvement of the internet and of e-commerce the organiser made use of brochures to showcase the several booking options as the main marketing tool which had to include some of the information before the contract was concluded 39 . Pre-contractual information was to be provided “in writing or any other appropriate form” under the old Package Travel Directive (Art. 4.1 (a) and (b)), or in writing or such other form as is “comprehensible and accessible to the consumer” regarding all the terms of the contract (Art. 4.2 b). The brochure was a durable medium which ensured that essential information regarding the contract was recorded and was able to be referred to throughout the lifetime of the contract 40 . There was much discussion when drafting the new directive in the context of the transition from traditional brochures to more flexible requirements in travel contracts resulting from the digital era 41 . In the end, recital (26) of the new Package Travel Directive allowed organisers and retailers to provide the traveller with “key information, for example on the main characteristics of the travel services or the prices, provided in advertisements”, not only in brochures, but also on the organiser’s website as part of the pre-contractual information. It is 38 See point (g) of Art. 3(3) CRD as drafted according to Art. 27(2) of the new Package Travel Directive. 39 Loos, “Precontractual information obligations for package travel contracts”, cit., p. 126. 40 With respect to consumers, see recital (23) CRD. 41 Tour operators submitted that traditional brochures were excessively costly for the travel industry: see Josep Maria Bech Serrat, Selling Tourism Services at a Distance: An Analysis of the EU Consumer Acquis, Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg, 2012, pp. 69-76. Regarding the cost of providing information, Twigg-Flesner and Schulze, “Protecting rational choice: information and the right of withdrawal”, cit., p. 140.