Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

436 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE II. PROTECTION AGAINST INSOLVENCY OF THE TRADERS OR FACILITATORS OF LINKED TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS As considered in the analysis of article 17 of the Directive, Member States assume the obligation to include in the regulations that transpose the Directive the need to protect travellers in cases of insolvency of the organisers or traders of trips, if these are offered as travel packages and also if the services acquired by the traveller compound a linked travel arrangement 5 . More specifically, the relevant provision requires that the security must cover the reimbursement of all the payments that the trader or facilitator receives from the travellers. If such traders are the party responsible for the carriage of passengers, the security shall also cover the traveller’s repatriation 6 . This protection requirement in cases of insolvency also extends to the businessmen not stablished in a member State that nevertheless target their activities to one or more Member States. Linked travel arrangements are those in which the businesses facilitate to travellers, in person or online 7 , the contracting of travel services, promoting the 5 During the long period that the tramitation of the Directive has undertaken there have been many different definitions and discusion on the concept of linked travel arrangement. Without the aim of being exhaustive, see, for instance, GONZÁLEZCABRERA, I., (2017), “Una nueva configuración legal del viaje turístico. Del viaje combinado al paquete dinámico”, Aranzadi Civil-Mercantil. Revista Doctrinal, no. 7, pp. 29-66; GONZÁLEZ CABRERA, I., (2016), “¿Estamos ante el mismo producto si se adquiere en línea un viaje combinado o distintos servicios de viaje vinculados?, Revista de Derecho Civil , vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 139-144; GONZÁLEZ CABRERA, I., (2015), “El contrato de viaje combinado y los paquetes dinámicos”, in Manual de contratación turística , (Coords. J. Franch Fluxá and J. Bleda Rodríguez), Barcelona, Atelier, pp. 111-135; GONZÁLEZ FERNÁNDEZ, M.ª B. (2015), “La reforma del marco conceptual europeo de los viajes combinados”, in Nuevos enfoques del Derecho aeronáutico y espacial , (Dir. J.I. Peinado, Coord. M.ª C. Mayorga), Madrid, Marcial Pons, pp., 275-289, so as PEINADO GRACIA, J.I., (2015), “La protección del pasajero en el contrato de viaje combinado y en la prestación de servicios asistidos de viaje: la responsabilidad del transportista aéreo y de los operadores turísticos”, in La responsabilidad del transportista aéreo y a protección de los pasajeros, (Dir. M.ª J. Guerrero Lebrón), Madrid, Marcial Pons, pp. 513-560. 6 BENAVIDESVELASCO, P., (2018), “La obligación de las agencias de viaje de prestar las garantías contempladas en la Directiva de viajes combinados”, International Journal of Scientific Management and Tourism , Vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 92-114. GONZÁLEZ CABRERA, I., (2018), “Medidas de protección del consumidor frente a la insolvencia de los operadores turísticos: seguros, fianzas y otras garantías”, Revista de Derecho Bancario y Bursátil , no. 152. 7 Some of the definitions have focused on stressing from this product its online contract. So, the most relevant literature has defined as a dynamic package or a linked travel arrangement that touristic product compound by several tourism services for a same travel or vacation, made or put together by the very traveller, by one or more websites redirected from the principal website. All of this by the using of a single web portal or by different webs linked by an associative agreement. So, GONZÁLEZ CABRERA, I., (2017), “Una nueva configuración legal del viaje turístico…, op. cit ., pp. 29 y ss. This travel service has been defined by CAMARGO GÓMEZ, J.D (2014)., “Contratación electrónica de paquetes dinámicos de turismo en el ordenamiento jurídico español”, Ars Iuris Salmanticensis , Revista Europea e Iberoamericana de pensamiento y análisis de Derecho, Ciencia Política y Criminología , vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 95-125, as an adhesive contract that is formed by a plurality of touristic services that are combined by the very traveller during the contracting process, and the services are acquired from one or many touristic operators, whose singularity is that they are linked by a commercial agreement.