Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 26 | MONIKA JURČOVÁ 539 protection and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) bodies was set up and met twice 6 . In addition, a targeted stakeholder consultation was carried out in October/November 2018. Replies were received from 14 competent authorities, nine alternative dispute resolution bodies, four consumer associations, 195 travel and tourism operators’ or their associations and 14 providers of insolvency protection or their associations. The trade association Airlines for Europe is a member of the Expert Group, but neither this association nor its members contributed to the targeted consultation. This should be taken into account in the assessment of the results of the consultation, as the airline sector is one of those most concerned by on-line bookings 7 . General report on the application of the Directive will follow in 2021. II. CONTEXT AND PURPOSE OF THE REPORT Part 1 of the Report ( Context and purpose of the report ) takes in account the aims of the Package Travel Directive to adapt the scope of protection in relation to developments in travel industry and booking processes to enhance transparency and to increase legal certainty for travellers and traders. As outlined at the Report, consumers combine travel services (transport, accommodation, car rental, leisure activities) for the same trip or holiday in many different ways. They buy, online or offline, “pre-arranged” packages or they “customise” their package by themselves. They can use the services of a travel agency or book directly several items (transport, car rental, hotel, excursions) from one or different service providers. One of the objectives of The Package Travel Directive was to adapt the legislation on package travel to new online booking models 8 , in particular, to better protect consumers who are using combinations of services. In order to achieve this result, the new Package Travel Directive extends the definition of “package” beyond traditional pre-arranged packages. A package now also covers customised combinations of travel services (online and offline) that are put together at the request of or in accordance with the selection of the traveller. In addition, the Directive introduces the concept of “linked travel 6 http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index.cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetail&groupID=3617&news=1. 7 See Staff Working Document SWD(2019)270. 8 See also Torres, C. A new paradigm in the protection of travellers in the digital age. In The new Package Travel Directive, Estoril: ESHTE, 2017, ISBN 978-989-99955- 0-5, p. 307.