Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 23 | SILVIA FELIU 483 In Europe, Regulation (EC) 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 17 June 2008, about the law that’s applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) 12 is the reference regulation for determining the applicable law to package travel and linked travel arrangements contracts. The Regulation Rome I determines the applicable national law on different aspects of contracts, which include the following: how a contract is interpreted and what must be done to fulfil its terms, the consequences of breaching a contract’s obligations, including the assessment of damages, the various ways of putting an end to contractual obligations (e.g. payment, compensation, annulling the contract), prescription and the time limits to bring legal action and the consequences of a contract being legally void (art. 12 Regulation Rome I). 4. INTERNATIONAL PACKAGE TRAVEL CONTRACTS AND IMPERATIVE NATURE The parties’ freedom to choose the applicable law is one of the cornerstones of the system of conflict of law rules in the Regulation Roma I. However, in the context of consumers, such a choice may not have the result of depriving the consumer of the protection afforded to him by provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement as virtue of the law of the country where the consumer has his habitual residence (art. 6.2 Rome I). The parties in a contract can choose the governing law: it may be applied to only a part or to the whole of the contract and the applicable law can be changed at any time as long as all parties agree. As the majority of travellers buying packages are consumers within the scope of the Union’s consumer laws, conflict of law rules for consumer contracts should be applied (art. 6.4.b Rome I). We observe that paragraph 4, b) Article 6, includes contract information relating to package travel as a consumer contract: Article 6. Consumer contracts 1. Without prejudice to Articles 5 and 7, a contract concluded by a natural person for a purpose which can be regarded as being outside his trade or profession (the consumer) with another person acting in the exercise of his trade or profession (the professional) shall be governed by the law of the country where the consumer has his habitual residence, provided that the professional: 12 OJ L 177/6, 4.7.2008.