Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

322 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE In this sense, art. 13, par. 1, comma 2, of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 establishes that “Member States may maintain or introduce in their national law provisions under which the retailer is also responsible for the performance of the package”, with a warning that “in that case the provisions of Article 7 and Chapter III, this Chapter and Chapter V which are applicable to the organiser shall also apply mutatis mutandis to the retailer.” 2. THE RETAILER’S LIABILITY PURSUANT TO DIRECTIVE (EU) 2015/2302 As mentioned, pursuant to the provisions of art. 1, the fundamental purpose pursued by Directive (EU) 2015/2302 is to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market and to achieving a high level and the most uniform possible protection of consumers, via the rapprochement of the legislation of the Member States with regard to contracts between travellers and professionals relating to package travel and linked travel arrangements. As a result, the legislator envisages an area without internal borders, with the right balance between a high level of protection and the competitiveness of businesses and has opted for a complete harmonization of the package travel contract 3 . In fact, according to art. 4 of this Directive “ Member States do not maintain or introduce diverging provisions in their national law... including [those] that are more stringent so as to guarantee a different level of protection for travellers. ” The international market is also managed by detailed regulations 4 , destined to be adopted in all their articulations; thus, the discretionary space of internal discipline has been significantly reduced, while it was guaranteed to a greater extent by the previous texts of the European Union. For example, regulations have been introduced concerning pre-contractual information regarding the features of individual services 5 . Similarly, the contract’s content regulation 3 See Fuhrich, The implementation of the new package travel Directive in Germany and its critical issues , in V. Franceschelli – F. Morandi – C. Torres, The new package travel directive, Eshte-Inatel, Lisboa, 2017, p. 101. 4 See Morandi, The new European regulation of package travel and linked travel arrangements, in Dir. trasp., 2017, p. 103; S. Keiler – F. Morandi, Package travel and assisted travel arrangements: The proposal for a new directive in light of a possible full harmonisation approach , in Riv. it. dir. tur. , 2014, p. 5, Id, The Directive on package travel and linked travel arrangements: The traveller protectionin a full harmonization approach , in V. Franceschelli – F. Morandi – C. Torres (eds.), The new package travel directive , cit., p. 401. 5 Artt. 5 and 6 of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 .