Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

744 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE 159/1999 Coll.”). This Act lays down the conditions for the operation of tour operators and travel agencies, as well as their rights and obligations in selling and facilitating the sale of package travel (hereinafter “package”). The Act also lays down the conditions of insolvency protection (i.e. providing security against insolvency) and the procedure of governmental authorities in supervising compliance with the conditions of selling packages in the Czech Republic. The respective rights and obligations of the parties to a package contract are regulated in the Czech Republic by Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code, specifically in Part Four, Title II, Chapter 6, entitled “Package”, Sections 2521 to 2549a (hereinafter “Act No. 89/2012 Coll.”). With a view to transposing PTD2, the Czech Republic adopted Act No. 111/2018 Coll., whereby it substantially amended the wording of Act No. 159/1999 Coll. and Act No. 89/2012 Coll. Act No. 159/1999 Coll. also newly regulates all the conditions of facilitating linked travel arrangements (hereinafter “LTA”) in the Czech Republic. In order to achieve full transposition of the provisions on insolvency protection, the Czech Republic established a “guarantee fund” and entrusted its management to a State organisation. Individual steps taken towards this goal included amendment to Act No. 211/2000 Coll., on the State Housing Development Fund, and the adoption of Decree No. 188/2018 Coll., on the amount of the annual contribution by a tour operator to the Guarantee Fund for 2019 (hereinafter “Decree No. 188/2018 Coll.”). Information on the rights of travellers, which is attached to PTD2, was implemented by the Czech Republic through Decree No. 122/2018 Coll., on template forms for individual types of packages and linked travel arrangements (hereinafter “Decree No. 122/2018 Coll.”). The aforementioned legal regulations are available on the website of the Ministry for Regional Development, which is the central governmental authority for tourism in the Czech Republic 2 . III. TIMELINE Amending Act No. 111/2018 Coll. entered into force on June 16, 2018, was notified to the European Commission in June 2018 and entered into effect on July 1, 2018. 2 See https://www.mmr.cz/cs/Ministerstvo/Cestovni-ruch/Novela-2018.