Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ESTONIA | IRENE KULL 769 Also, requirements to the content of the travel package contract provided for in Art. 7 of the Directive were transposed into § 869 of the LOA verbatim. In conclusion, the traveller will receive more information under Estonian law before concluding the contract and in the contract of travel package in comparison to previous regulation. 3.4. Alteration of contract terms and transfer of the contract Right of the tour operator to change the terms of the travel package contract are transposed into two paragraphs, namely § 871 and § 872 of the LOA. Change of the price of package provided for in the Art. 10 of the Directive is transposed verbatim into § 871 of the LOA and alteration of other package travel contract terms into § 872(1) of the LOA. Consequences of alteration of package travel contract terms, including the price, are provided for in § 872(2) of the LOA. In accordance to the § 871 of the LOA, tour operator may increase the price of a package after the entry into the package contract only if this was expressly provided in the contract with the procedure for calculation of the new price or if the need to change the price arises due to the special circumstances provided for in the § 871(1)(2) of the LOA. Information about the change of the price shall be provided to the traveller in a clear and comprehensive way on a durable medium 26 and consist of a justification for the increase of the price of the package and a calculation. Unlike previous regulation, consequences arising from the change of the price of travel package are extended to both situations, in cases where the price of package either increases or decreases. Alteration of other package contract terms provided for in § 872 of the LOA is a verbatim copy from the Art. 11 of the Directive. There were some discussions during the transposition of the Directive about the proper terms in the Estonian language to comply with the purpose of the Directive 27 . Consequences of alteration of package travel contract terms, including the price, are provided for in § 872(2) of the LOA. Thus, if alteration of the package travel contract concerns the main characteristics of the travel service referred to in Art. 11(2) of the Directive 28 , or special requirements or if the increase of the 26 Definition is given in § 11 1 LOA: “Durable medium means an instrument which enables a person to store information addressed personally to that person in a way accessible for a period of time corresponding to the purposes of the information and which allows the unchanged reproduction thereof”. 27 For example, to avoid possible discussions whether the ‘terms of the package travel contract’ and the ‘main features of the travel service’ are overlapping terms, it was decided to literally follow the wording of Art. 11(2) of the Directive. 28 In Estonian law, the provisions of the Directive, referred to are § 867(2)(1), (3)-(5) and (8)-(11) of the LOA.