Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 1 | F. JAVIER MELGOSA ARCOS 75 information from a travel agency that in the area of southern Portugal there were frequent robberies committed on tourists, was the cause of the sentence of an English court, having regard to the provisions of Directive 90 / 314 making the travel agency responsible of the material damages suffered by the applicants who had hired a package (Royal Courts of Justice, Strand UK, London WC2, LTA 94/6028 / C Court of Appeal). In Spain, the SAP Madrid May 31, 2004 confirmed the first instance condemnatory sentence against a wholesaler in relation with a trip to the Caribbean because “ the information did not contain the necessary details to have an exact idea of the place that those who were going to travel, were going to visit: the conditions of the hotel (‘accommodation indicating its type, location, category or level of comfort in its main features, as well as its approval and tourist classification in those countries where there is an official classification’), its location and the rough sea state during August in Saint Martin which prevented them from practicing all kinds of water sports, including swimming and bathing” (ALICIA DE LEON, 2007). Article 7.1 of the Directive provides that Member States shall ensure that package travel contracts are in plain and intelligible language and, in so far as they are in writing, legible. At the conclusion of the package travel contract or without undue delay thereafter, the organiser or retailer shall provide the traveller with a copy or confirmation of the contract on a durable medium. The traveller shall be entitled to request a paper copy if the package travel contract has been concluded in the simultaneous physical presence of the parties. With respect to off-premises contracts as defined in point 8 of Article 2 of Directive 2011/83/EU, a copy or confirmation of the package travel contract shall be provided to the traveller on paper or, if the traveller agrees, on another durable medium; and in paragraph 5, adds that “in good time before the start of the package, the organiser shall provide the traveller with the necessary receipts, vouchers and tickets, information on the scheduled times of departure and, where applicable, the deadline for check-in, as well as the scheduled times for intermediate stops, transport connections and arrival ”. ‘Durable medium’ means any instrument which enables the traveller or the trader to store information addressed personally to him in a way accessible for future reference for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information and which allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored (art. 3 (11). In the Spanish case law, the SAP Barcelona 1 March 2001 states that “it is necessary that the trips of this nature shall be given in written form, which is a guarantee intended to ensure not only the reality of recruitment itself, but