Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

764 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE travel services in the case of which only one type of travel service has been combined with one or several other tourist services if the latter service or services does or do not account for no less than 25 per cent of the total value of the travel services and is or are not advertised as and does or does not otherwise represent an essential feature of the combination of the travel services or is or are selected and the provision thereof. An accommodation service and catering service offered simultaneously with carriage of passengers in a means of transport providing regular carriage of passengers, provided the carriage of passengers is the main component of the service also does not mean package travel (§ 7(4) TA). Exceptions to the situations where accommodation service as service provided in the course of economic or professional activities forms part of the travel package can be found in § 17 of the TA. This concerns, for example, accommodations under residential lease contract, accommodation in a means of transport used for the provision of transport services for passengers or accommodation in extraordinary conditions in order to gain an experience (in the wild, in a hut, on a raft, etc.). Definition of linked travel arrangements is provided in § 7 1 (1) of the TA is verbatim copied from Art. 3(5) of the Directive. Exception provided for in the Art. 3(5) subsection 2 of the Directive concerning cases where one or more travel services are purchased do not constitute a linked travel arrangement has been specified in the course of the transposition of the Directive as following: the other tourist service or services shall not account for no less than 25 per cent of the total value of the travel services and are or are not advertised as, and do or do not otherwise represent, an essential feature of the trip (§ 7 1 (2) TA). Definition of the package travel contract provided in the § 866(1) of the LOA: by a package contract, a tour operator makes a commitment to the other contracting party to organise a package travel to one or more persons (traveller) for the purposes of § 7 of the TA, and the other contracting party undertakes to pay the price of the package. Where a tour operator is established outside the European Economic Area, the retailer established in a Member State of the European Union shall be subject the obligations provided for in §§ 875-877 and 878-878 2 of the LOA unless the retailer provides evidence that the tour operator complies with the obligations provided in the specified sections 18 . 18 In the course of the transposition of the Art. 20 of the Directive into Estonian law § 866(4 1 ) of the LOA provides that following provisions will apply: measures upon violation of the contract (§ 875), right of cancellation of the traveller (§ 876), liability of the tour operator (§ 877), prohibition of limitation and preclusion of liability (§ 878), obligation to provide assistance (§ 878 1 ) and possibility to contact tour operator via retailer (§ 878 2 ).