Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

522 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE In this frame, we could say that the introduction of article 25 contributes to strengthening the legal security of the traveller, providing for the first time the obligation for Member States to provide for penalties to guarantee passengers in the event of violationof the rules contained in the internal provision implementing the Directive. 2. THE PENALTIES With the advent of Directive 2302/2015 the European legislator for the first time in the field of touristic packages, introduces the provision of penalties for those who infringe the principles contained in the rules of law, with the aim of further reinforce the position of the traveller, who is also safeguarded by a public protection. The provision is in line with the similar content included in almost every Directive concerning the protection of consumers, with the exception of Directive 93/13/CEE of the Council, 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts 6 , and of Directive 1999/44/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees. Legislators of the various member States, in implementing the Directives, have the duty to quantify the amount of the respective penalties, according to the type of infringement and at the same time they must identify the Authority who shall be competent to the ascertainment of the infringement. With respect to the quantification of the penalties, art. 25 requires that they obey to the principles of effectiveness, proportionality and dissuasiveness, which can always be found in European provisions of law. Therefore, we face the open issue of consistency of the penalties among member States, also in the field of travel contracts 7 . Given the scarcely objective character of the above-mentioned criteria and given the absence of authentic construction, the issue of their effectiveness in terms of harmonization has been raised. Some authors correctly observe that these criteria are still vague notions. They are not defined by EU legislation and the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU is rather limited on this topic… With regard to the principle of 6 See footnote number 9. 7 See among the others: Cafaggi – Iamiceli, The Principles of Effectiveness, Proportionality and Dissuasiveness in the Enforcement of EU Consumer Law: The Impact of a Triad on the Choice of Civil Remedies and Administrative Sanctions , in European review of private law, n.3, 2017, p. 575 e ss.