Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 18 | LAURENCE JÉGOUZO 413 both professionals and consumers. Another consequence arising from this situation is that market participants, which currently explicitly fall under the scope of the directive, were subject to different rules and costs than companies which were not subject to the directive or so they believed, although they sought to attract the same customers. In addition, certain provisions of the Directive became outdated or created an unnecessary burden for companies, such as information requirements for brochures and the inclusion of business trips managed by specialized companies. In accordance with article 114 TFEU, the overall objective of the revised proposal was therefore to enhance the functioning of the internal market and to achieve a high level of consumer protection through the approximation of rules on package travel and other combinations of travel services. The scope of this Directive is therefore considerably broadened and some providers create packages and linked travel arrangements without being aware of it. The main purpose of article 18 of the Directive is to protect the tourist- -consumer. Article 18 provides, in addition to the recognition of insolvency protection, a transmission of the contact details of the entities in charge of the protection through in particular “central contact points”, which will be made available to all in the form of an inventory. Member States will also have the possibility to request clarification for an organiser’s insolvency protection from the organiser’s Member State of establishment, who will have fifteen (15) working days to reply. However, one cannot help but wonder how this article will be applied because the circumstances are different from country to country. What are the impacts of the adoption of article 18 of the EU Package Travel Directive for the traveller, the Member State and the tour operator? Even though article 18 of the Presidential Decree of 20 December 2017 proves to be a major asset for the traveller and tourism economy (I), it also seems difficult to put into practice (II). I. THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION WANTED TO STRENGTHEN THE TRAVELLER’S PROTECTION The purpose of article 18 is to facilitate the provision of information regarding the entities in charge of the insolvency protection against the insolvency of travel organisations (A), thereby reducing the number of travellers affected by these disasters and boosting the tourism economy (B).