Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

254 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE on the other hand, recognizing the potential operational burden for the tour operator, the legislator at least shows concern about ensuring a minimum time for the fulfilment of the bureaucratic operations and provides guarantees regarding the information that must be transferred. The last, but not less burdensome prescription for the transferor, remained unchanged compared to those previously articulated: the joint liability, together with the assignee, for the payment of the balance of the price and any rights, taxes and other additional costs that result from the sale. The imposition of the joint responsibility of the assignor and the assignee strengthens the organiser and protects him, probably to compensate for the absence of the consent to the assignment. Therefore, for the organiser the only consequences of the sale are summarized in those operations of a bureaucratic nature that he is forced to carry out. The personal characteristics of the transferee, in fact, will not be detected in the performance of the service, since the assignment is effective if and only if the new traveller has the requisites required for the trip. The same applies to the creditworthiness of the debtor, as joint liability puts the organiser safe from the risk. 4. SOME ISSUES RELATED TO ITALIAN IMPLEMENTATION OF DIRECTIVE 2015/2302 In the Italian system the institute of the transfer of the contract was introduced with the entry into force of the 1942 code and it is regulated through civil code articles 1406-1410. The assignment of the contract is the agreement through which a party in a contract assigns it to a third party, with the consent of the other party. Art. 1406 states that each party in the contract can substitute himself with a third party in the relationships arising from a contract with its corresponding obligations, if these have not yet been performed, provided that the other party consents 26 . As can be seen from the text of the code, in the Italian system the consent of the other contractor in the sale is an essential element of the case. The absence of a consent requirement to make the transfer of the package effective has led to 26 Regarding the essentiality of acceptance in the assignment, see Betti, Teoria generale delle obbligazioni (General theory of bonds), vol II, 2-IV, Milan, 1955, p. 42.