Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ESTONIA | IRENE KULL 765 In order to ensure systematic regulation of the scope of the package travel contract, the provisions on exclusion provided for in Art. 2 of the Directive are verbatim introduced into § 866 1 of the LOA. In conclusion, the transposition of the Directive broadens the definition of package travel, taking into account market trends such as online travel arrangements or travel arrangements at the request of the traveller, leading to wider rights and better protection for passengers, which include passenger information and guarantee obligations. An important change for travellers brought on by the Directive is the inclusion of the term ‘linked travel arrangements’. Although linked travel arrangements are not given the full scope of protections provided by the Directive, linked travel arrangement service providers do have an obligation to guarantee and reimburse costs of the cancelled journey and costs of travel to the place of departure or to the place agreed upon in the contract. 3.2. Subjects to the travel package contract In the course of the transposition of the Directive, the TA was amended to clarify the terms by aligning them with the definitions given in the Directive. Concept of travel trader was changed to maintain coherence between the LOA and TA. Because contract of travel package belongs to the contracts for services, previous text of the TA referring to the sales contract was changed accordingly. In accordance with the § 5(1) of the TA a travel trader is an undertaking which operates as a tour operator, travel retailer or an undertaking which facilitates the conclusion of contracts on linked travel arrangements for the purposes of economic or professional activities relating to packages and linked travel arrangements 19 . According to the Art. 3(8) of the Directive, the trader can be a legal or natural person who is acting in his name or on his behalf for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession in relation to contracts covered by the Directive. In Estonian law, corresponding definition of a trader can be found in § 1(6) of the LOA 20 . A tour operator, defined in the Directive as a ‘organiser’, is a travel trader who combines packages and offers them or enters into package travel contracts itself or through another travel trader or together with another travel trader or which 19 Directive, Art. 3(7). 20 In accordance to the § 1(6) of the LOA, a trader is a person, including a legal person in public law, who concludes a transaction which is related to independent economic or professional activities.