Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

CROATIA | TATJANA JOSIPOVIĆ 711 Obligations Act on package travel contracts 45 . In the former Tourism Service Act, a “travel agency ” was defined as a company, an individual trader, a craftsman or as their organisational unit offering the service of organising travels or mediating in the services connected with travelling or accommodation of tourists 46 . The former Tourism Service Act also provided for the public enforcement rights in package travel contracts by laying down misdemeanour penalties for the violation of organisers’ obligations 47 . Finally, on some issues concerning the protection of a traveller as a consumer, the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act (hereinafter: CPA) 48 applied, such as the provisions on unfair contractual terms, unfair commercial practices, contracts negotiated away from business premises, distance contracts and the like, by which harmonisation with the EU consumer directives, in the area of consumer contract law, was carried out. The legal regulation of the package travel contract by which the old Package Travel Directive was implemented in the Croatian law was characterised by considerable fragmentation of the regulation of this type of contract. Package travel contracts were governed by several laws. The private law aspects of this contract were provided for by the Obligations Act (e.g. the concept of a contract, its content and form, the rights and duties of the parties to the contract). The public law aspects, i.e. the public enforcement of the provisions on the protection of travellers in the package travel contract were governed by the former Tourism Services Act (e.g. misdemeanour penalties for the organiser’s violation of contractual obligations). The provisions of the Consumer Protection Act were also applied to package travel contracts. In practice, this fragmentation turned out to be very impractical and insufficiently effective for the protection of travellers under a package travel contract. The appropriate implementation of the new PTD and an effective enforcement of the national provisions adopted pursuant to 45 See Gorenc,V., Belanić,L., Momčinović,H., Perkušić,A., Pešutić,A., Slakoper,Z., Vukelić,M., Vukmir, B: o.c., p.1361; Petrović,S., Tepeš, N.: Materijalnopravni i međunarodnoprivatnopravni aspekti ugovora o organiziranju putovanja (Substanitive law and private international law aspects of the package tourist contract), Zbornik Pravnog fakulteta u Zagrebu, 6/2005, p. 1505. 46 Art. 5 indent 1 of the former Tourism Services Act (2007). The former Tourism Service Act (2007) set forth that, among other things, the services of tourist agencies consisted of package arrangements and the conclusion and implementation of contracts on package arrangements (Art. 7, para.1, indent 1). 47 See, for example, Art. 62, para.1, points 8, 9; Art. 63, para. 1 points 8, 9,10,12 of the former Tourism Services Act. 48 Consumer Protection Act ( Zakon o zaštiti potrošača ), Official Gazette, nos 41/2014, 110/2015, 14/2019.