Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 18 | PATRICIA BENAVIDES VELASCO 425 to amplify its implementation by means of the provisions of Regulation 1024/2012 12 . Nevertheless, the Annex of the Decision 2004/386/EC, regulating the IDABC programme, expressly admits fields such as tourism and consumer protection 13 . Moreover, Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on cooperation between the national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws, which repeals Regulation (EC) N.º 2006/2004 14 , establishes the conditions under which the relevant authorities designated by the Member States for the enforcement of the regulation regarding the protection of consumers must cooperate among themselves and with the European Commission, with the aim of ensuring the compliance with the regulation and the proper operation of the internal market, while at the same time they improve the protection of the consumers’ economic interests. This Regulation will enter into force by 17 January 2020 15 . As noted before, the rate at which the regulations on consumer protection are not complied with is too high in the territory of the European Union 16 . A sample made in 2014 considering, among other services, the commercialization of travel packages shows that 37% of the commercial transactions made by electronic means did not comply with the regulations on consumer protection. In the initial proposal for this Regulation 17 , the European Commission already indicated who would be the potential beneficiaries of its rules. These beneficiaries include the consumers that make cross-border purchases both online and by traditional means. The relevant authorities on cooperation issues 12 On these issues, see SENDÍN GARCÍA, M.A., (2010), “El ámbito de aplicación de la Directiva: los servicios afectados”, in Impacto de la transposición de la Directiva de Servicios en Castilla y León, (Dirs. D. Vicente Blanco and R. Rivero Ortega), Consejo Económico y social de Castilla y León, pp. 85-135. 13 Decision 2004/387/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004, on interoperable delivery of pan-European eGovernment services to public administrations, businesses and citizens (IDABC), OJEU, L 181, 15.5.2004. 14 OJEU, L 345, 27.12.2017. The last amendment of this regulation was introduced by Regulation (EU) 2018/302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 February 2018 on addressing unjustified geo- -blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market and amending Regulations (EC) No 2006/2004 and (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC. OJEU, LI 60, 2.3.2018. 15 To the date, the relevant rules are the ones set by the Regulation (EC) N.º 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 2004 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws (the Regulation on consumer protection cooperation), OJEU, L 364, 9.12.2014. 16 See Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws, Doc. COM (2016) 283 final, 25.5.2016. 17 Idem .