Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

538 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE bookings, in particular whether an amendment of the definition of “click- -through packages” would be appropriate (Article 26 of the Directive). Online bookings made at different points of sale and the qualification of such bookings as packages, linked travel arrangements or stand-alone travel services, and in particular on the definition of package set out in point (b)(v) of point 2 of Article 3 has been considered as one of the most complicated tasks covered by the Package Travel Directive and therefore the request for the first report by the Commission has been set to the very early date (1 January 2019) after implementation deadline for the Directive (1 July 2018) to raise the discussion as soon as possible whether an adjustment or broadening of that definition is appropriate . Taking into account that only by March 2019 have Member States transposed the Package Travel Directive in their national legal orders, the time limit set out for the first report in the Directive seems to be premature 3 . In order to fulfil its obligation the Commission has submitted its Report on the provisions of Directive on package travel and linked travel arrangements applying to online bookings made at different points of sale on 21 June 2019 (hereinafter referred to as “Report”) 4 . The Report consists of three parts and it is accompanied by the Commission Staff Working Document 5 that presents further background information for the Commission Report. The Commission Staff Working Document concentrates particularly on the methodology for preparation of the Report and the main challenges of online bookings as considered by various groups of stakeholders when summarizing the key findings for the Report. In order to evaluate the use of online bookings made at different points of sale, an Expert Group composed of different organisations representing consumer associations, travel and tourism business associations, providers of insolvency 3 See also Minutes from Meeting of the Stakeholder Expert,17 September 2018, Brussels, where all experts agreed that: “the very short timeline for the preparation of the report (6 months from the entry into application of the Directive) does not really allow to reflect correctly the market situation and to have practical feedback from stakeholders (including consumers’ and ADR bodies). For the summer season, packages were mostly sold before new rules became applicable; the next wave of package sales will be in November when the information gathering for the report will end.” Available at https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index.cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetail&groupID=3 617&news=1. 4 COM(2019) 270 final, Report from the Comsission to the European Parliament and the Council on the provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on package travel and linked travel arrangements applying to online bookings made at different points of sale {SWD(2019) 270 final}. 5 See Staff Working Document SWD(2019)270.