Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

DENMARK | MARIE JULL SØRENSEN 753 some additional information duties were added as a consequence of the new Directive. Furthermore, Article 6(3) of the Danish act refers to the Danish Consumer Contract Act, Article 8(3) and Article 12 7 . The Danish Consumer Contract Act is mainly an implementation of the Consumer Rights Directive 8 . Article 8(3) states that all pre-contractual information must be given in Danish if the trader has marketed his services in Danish and the service is either offered off the premises of the trader or through distance selling 9 . This language requirement can only be exempted if the traveller explicitly gives his consent to use another language. Article 12 states that within the scope of distance selling through electronic means, a trader must make very clear at the point of payment that the consumer (and thus the traveller) is about to pay 10 . In Article 12, there is also a duty to inform the consumer (and thus the traveller) about the most important features of the service, the price and how to terminate the contract (in case of an ongoing contract). This information must be provided in a clear and unequivocal way right before the purchase. In the preparatory work for the Danish Package Travel Act, it is clarified that Article 8(3) and Article 12 of the Consumer Act do not only apply to consumers but also include all travellers 11 . RETAILER LIABILITY In the former Danish Package Travel Act, the retailer was liable for economic damage along with the organiser. The retailer then had a right of redress towards the organiser. In the preparatory work, the Ministry of Justice discussed whether this Danish liability rule could be upheld 12 . Article 13(1) of the new Directive gives the Member States the opportunity to make the retailer liable also for the performance of the contract and the Ministry established that Article 13(1) is more extensive than the Danish rule, as it concerns liability for performance and 7 Consumer Contract Act no 1457 of 17 December 2013. 8 Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights, amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 85/577/EEC and Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council Text with EEA relevance (Consumer Rights Directive). 9 Article 8 of the Danish Consumer Contract Act makes use of Member States possibilities to set language requirements in Article 6(7) of the Consumer Rights Directive. 10 Article 12 is an implementation of Article 8(2) of the Consumer Rights Directive. 11 Comments on Article 6 in the preparatory work on the Danish Package Travel Act, L 33, 2017. 12 Preparatory work of the new Danish Package Travel Act, L 33, section 2.19.2.