Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

BELGIUM | OLIVIER DUGARDYN 665 The Belgian legislator has chosen this option by extending the Law to the sale of single travel services, but in a limited way. 5 . According to articles 71 and 72 of the Law, the organiser or the retailer who sells, as intermediary, stand-alone travel services, must provide a security for the refund of all payments received from or on behalf of travellers, if the relevant travel service is not provided as a consequence of his insolvency. He must inform the traveller, before he is bound by a travel service contract, in a clear, comprehensible and explicit manner about: 1° the insolvency protection from which he benefits and 2° the name of the entity in charge of the insolvency protection and its contact details, including its geographical address and, where applicable, the name of the competent authority designated by the Member State for that purpose and its contact details. In other words, an organiser or retailer who sells (as intermediary) one travel service, such as a “flight-only”, “hotel-only”, etc... must have an insolvency insurance or guarantee to be allowed to sell in Belgium. 6. The words “as intermediary” are important to distinguish travel professionals who sell travel services of third parties from professionals who sell their own services. Professionals who sell their own services do not act as intermediaries and do not fall under the application of articles 71 and 72 of the Law. For example, the hotel owner who sells accommodations at his own hotel has no obligation to provide insolvency protection (he will in theory fall under this obligation if he sells accommodations in another hotel which is not his own or if he combines accommodations at his own hotel with other travel services...). The question can be asked whether travel providers, who are not established in Belgium and offer, as intermediaries, single travel services to Belgian consumers, for instance online, must provide insolvency protection (cfr infra par. 9). 3. MATTERS IN THE PTD LEFT TO THE DISCRETION OF NATIONAL LEGISLATORS 7. We know that, because of differences in national laws and practices, the PTD allows national legislators to maintain or introduce rules in their national legislation on a (limited) number of aspects. Belgium has taken the following position in these fields.