Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 14 | MICHAEL WUKOSCHITZ 357 VII. IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 14 IN SELECTED MEMBER STATES Due to language barriers, the following explanations only throw a light of the implementation of Article 14 in some selected member states (in alphabetical order) but may still give an impression of different approaches with regard to the implementation. 1. Austria In Austria, Article 14 has been implemented in sec. 12 of the new Package Travel Act 47 . The wording of the national provision more or less follows the wording of the Directive with some slight amendments due to the particular legal language in Austria. In para (2) the Austrian provision explicitly mentions loss of holiday enjoyment as to be covered by the compensation in case of severe negative impact of the lack of conformity. It further contains an amendment according to which a failure of the traveller to inform the organiser on any lack of conformity which he perceived during the performance of a travel service may be regarded as contributory negligence. In my opinion this amendment leads to confusion rather than it leads to clarification as it leaves doubts about the effect of such failure with regard to price reduction claims. Contrary to Article 14 (4), sec. 12 (4) provides that the compensation to be paid to the traveller must not be subject to any contractual limitation, whatsoever. This discrepancy is based on the Austrian legislator’s assumption that any liability of the organiser under Austrian law would require fault and therefore there wouldn’t be any scope of application for a contractual limitation which only applies where damage is caused neither intentionally nor with negligence. Given the clear wording of Article 14, I feel, that this assumption cannot be upheld. Austria did not make use of the option of a limitation of the organiser’s liability according to international conventions which are not binding for the Union. 47 Bundesgesetz über Pauschalreisen und verbundene Reiseleistungen (Pauschalreisegesetz – PRG), BGBl 2017/50.