Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

382 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE the organiser or retailer would be entitled to charge a fee for giving support to their clients, provided that the fee is “reasonable”. At this stage, it is possible to anticipate some difficulties when interpreting the provisions set out in this respect in Article 16 of the Directive. Indeed, no definition was given of the terms reasonable fee . It will be up to the member States courts, under the supervision of the European Court of Justice, to interpret this notion, as difficulties may arise when the organiser wishes to invoice a reasonable fee to his client. It is questionable whether the court will follow the guidance provided for the alteration of price or alternatively for the termination fee, to assess the reasonable nature of the assistance fee 29 . In those cases, the organiser or retailer shall explain and/or justify the calculation. It seems that in the case of assistance, the organiser or the retailer who wishes to invoice a fee will always have to corroborate this amount with justifications, if the fee is finally disputed. CONCLUSIONS While professionals in the travel sector willingly offered assistance in the past to their clients in difficulty under general contractual obligations, the Directive notably strengthened the travellers’ rights to benefit from assistance, whatever the cause of their difficulty might be. In any event, the costs issue remains independent from the obligation to provide assistance to travellers and shall be dealt with after the return of the travellers. However, in practical terms the organiser or the retailer will inevitably be unable to charge for the efforts they arrange, which will be ultimately considered a supplemental financial burden for the professionals in the travel sector who arrange package travel. 29 Articles 10 and 12 of the Directive.