Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

Article 22 Right of Redress In cases where an organiser or, in accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 13(1) or Article 20, a retailer pays compensation, grants price reduction or meets the other obligations incumbent on him under this Directive, Member States shall ensure that the organiser or retailer has the right to seek redress from any third parties which contributed to the event triggering compensation, price reduction or other obligations. David Grant 1 1. Introduction; 2. Contractual Protection; 3. Protection Under Art. 22; 4. An Alternative Road to Redress; 5. Conclusion. 1. INTRODUCTION When a package holiday goes wrong it is most often a fault with one of the components of the holiday rather than the fault of the tour operator or the travel agent who was the organiser of the package. A good example of this is the case of Japp v Virgin Holidays Limited [2013] EWCA Civ 1371 2 where the claimant suffered injury when she walked through a glass balcony door at the hotel in which she was staying which did not comply with the relevant local standards. 1 Professor Emeritus, University of Northumbria. Editor of the Travel Law Quarterly . The assistance of Stephen Mason of Travlaw in the preparation of this article is gratefully acknowledged. 2 This was a case under Regulation 15 of the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 which transposes Art. 5 of Council Directive on Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours (90/314/ EEC) – now superseded by the 2015 Directive but which, on this point, is not significantly different.