Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

708 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE accommodation or other tourist services, provided over a period of more than 24 hours, or including at least one overnight accommodation (a package), and travellers undertook to pay a single total (lump-sum) price 24 . The Obligations Act expressly laid down that a package travel contract had to be made in a written form, or in such other documentary form as shall be comprehensible and accessible to the traveller 25 . In addition, depending on the particular package, the obligatory content of a package travel contract was provided 26 .The obligations of the contracting parties to a package travel contract were also specified in accordance with the old Package Travel Directive 27 . The obligations of the organiser of the package regarding the provision of pre-contractual information were set forth 28 , including the obligation to protect the travellers’ rights and interests 29 , to preserve the confidentiality of information 30 , the liability for damage 31,32 and the liability for damage in cases where the rendering of particular services was entrusted to a third party 33 . The organiser was responsible to 24 Art. 881, para. 1 OA. See Tot,I.: Paket-aranžman I potpomognuti putni aranžman (Package and assisted travel arrangement), Zbornik Pravnog fakulteta u Rijeci, 1/2015, p. 495. The package travel contract is considered as an independent, nominate, chargeable and consensual contract which belongs to the group of service contracts. See Gorenc,V., Belanić,L., Momčinović,H., Perkušić,A., Pešutić,A., Slakoper,Z., Vukelić,M., Vukmir, B: Komentar Zakona o obveznim odnosima (Commentary on Obligations Act), Zagreb, 2014., p.1364. 25 Art. 884 para. 1 OA. 26 Art. 884 para. 4 OA. 27 The largest part of the provisions of the OA on the content of travel package contracts and the rights and obligations of the parties are considered to be mandatory rules. See Gorenc,V., Belanić,L., Momčinović,H., Perkušić,A., Pešutić,A., Slakoper,Z., Vukelić,M., Vukmir, B: o.c., p. 1364. 28 Arts 882, 883, 886 OA. 29 Art. 885 OA. 30 Art. 887 OA. 31 Art. 888 OA. The Obligations Act set forth the following: “the organiser of the package shall be liable for all the damage inflicted on the traveller by non-performance, partial performance and improper performance of obligations relating to the package stipulated in the contract and in the Obligations Act” . The rule encompassed all forms of material and non-material damages. See Gorenc,V., Belanić,L., Momčinović,H., Perkušić,A., Pešutić,A., Slakoper,Z., Vukelić,M., Vukmir, B: o. c. pp.1374, 1375. It has been confirmed in case law that the organiser is also liable for non-material damage. There existed, for example, liability for non-material damage for the violation of personality right to mental health (dissatisfaction, outrage, frustration, disturbed peace of mind) because of a delayed plane and delayed arrival at the destination so that the itinerary could not be fully realised. See the decision of the County Court in Varaždin, Gž-112/09 of 2 March 2009, published in Gorenc,V., Belanić,L., Momčinović,H., Perkušić, A., Pešutić,A., Slakoper, Z., Vukelić, M., Vukmir, B: o.c., p. 1375. 32 Art. 891 OA set forth the following: “the provisions of the package travel contract excluding or limiting the organiser’s liability for damage shall be null and void. However, it was possible to contract a provision determining in advance the highest amount of compensation for damage unless it was evidently disproportionate to the damage, except for a damage caused by intention or gross negligence, or if damage caused personal injury.”. 33 Art. 889 OA.