Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

682 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE linked travel arrangements and travel service agreements. All general terms and conditions were approved by the FGD for Economic Affairs and are frequently used in the Belgian travel sector. E. Conclusion The Belgian transposition law is, in many respects, a literal conversion of the European Directive. It is clear that the Directive has some shortcomings, as it mainly regulates package travel, without taking into account other categories. Moreover, poorly chosen and vague definitions result in interpretation issues. The Belgian legislator anticipated these problems and initiated consultations with stakeholders to develop Guidelines that should clarify the application of this new legislation. The Travel Arbitration Committee also formulated general terms and conditions for all three categories included in the Belgian transposition law. Despite these initiatives, there is still considerable confusion more than twelve months after the newTravel Law took effect. The evaluation consultation, scheduled in the Directive, dated 1 January 2021, offers a perfect opportunity to adapt any vague concepts, ambiguous definitions and regulations that are not feasible in practice to the requirements of all stakeholders in a travel agreement, i.e. travellers and companies operating in the travel sector. PART 3. LACK OF CLARITY AND INTERPRETATION ISSUES IN THE NEW TRAVEL LAW 25. Persistent lack of clarity in the legislation – Notwithstanding the principle of maximum harmonisation, the European Directive gave Member States several options they could decide upon themselves. Part 1 describes the options applied to the Belgian transposition law. Because of its decision to opt for three categories, i.e. “package travel, linked travel arrangement and individual travel services”, Belgium appears to be the odd one out amongst other Member States. Moreover, the expansion of the scope of application in Belgium did not deliver the initially expected results. The confusing definitions and vague concepts continue to be a source of interpretation issues. When applied to the Belgian transposition law, many anomalies have already occurred, and some remaining questions still need to be resolved.