Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

712 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE this Directive 49 , called for an elimination of such normative fragmentation. All the essential aspects of private and public enforcement rules on package travel contracts had to be governed by the same Act 50 . Therefore, the new Tourism Services Act was adopted and the application of its provisions on the package travel contract started on 1 July 2018 in accordance with the new PTD. 2. METHOD OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE In order to harmonise Croatian law with the new PTD, the Croatian legislator opted for a different method of implementation than the one used when the old PTD had been transposed. The new PTD was implemented in the “sectoral” Act that governed the provision of services in tourism (Tourism Services Act) rather than the Obligations Act governing general contract law. While implementing the new PTD, the Croatian legislator was primarily led by the functional approach aimed at ensuring the prerequisites for a harmonised, adequate and effective application of the rules of the PTD. This is why all the specific rules that are important for a proper and full implementation of the Directive are provided for in the same Act. The new approach to the implementation of the PTD was not just a nomotechnic turning point in the method of implementation. The incorporation of the provisions on package travel and linked travel arrangements in the TSA had very important substantial effects on the Croatian tourism law and in particular on its becoming systematic and consistent. By the implementation of the new PTD in the TSA, the provisions on package travels and linked travel arrangements became a component part of Croatian tourism law. On the one hand, all the rules on package travel contracts are now put together and harmonised in the same Act despite the fact that some of them are of private law (civil law) nature and some of public law nature. Indeed, the implementation of the PTD in the TSA resulted in a situation where all the rules on package travel contracts are systematically laid down in the same Act: those providing for the 49 Arts 24, 25 PTD. 50 See the Explanation of the Final Draft of the Act on the Provision of Services in Tourism ( Obrazloženje konačnog prijedloga Zakona o pružanju usluga u turizmu ) P.Z.E. no. 209, Zagreb, December 2017, p. 79, published at https://www.sabor.hr/sites/default/files/uploads/sabor/2019-01-18/081325/PZE_209.pdf (web page visited: 5/7/2019).