Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

FINLAND | MIKKO LAAKSO 789 As a prerequisite for the creation of a travel package in addition to the single point of sale is that the passenger selects the services before committing to pay for them. In this regard, the following NPTD transposition workshop meeting note (25.10.2016) referred to Article 3 (2) (b) (i) and stated that a travel package would be created if different travel services were selected before the consumer commits to paying at least one service before choosing another; an example is the shopping cart integrated with the online service. In this case choosing an invoice as the payment method for the selected travel services is enough to meet the criteria set in the NPTD. Thus, in practice it is always considered to be a travel package when a consumer is shopping in web store behind a single domain, where he is free to choose and collect the travel services, he wishes to purchase in a separate shopping cart. The fact that contracts are then concluded with clearly separate service providers and that the consumer can be deemed to be aware of this does not restrain the statutory mechanism for the creation of a travel package from being formed. The situation is the same when consumer pays for the contents of his shopping cart in one transaction. The fact that payments go to two different traders cannot play a role in assessing a consumer’s perception of a single payment when using a website, unless the consumer’s payment is not reflected as two separate payments at the time of transaction. The technical arrangement, which charges the consumer a single transaction and distributes the money to the traders in proportion to the value of the services purchased makes the it a travel package. Chapter 3 (2) of the Act on combinations of travel services somewhat restricts the formation of a package of travel services by requiring a substantial part of the value of the package to be an integral part of it. The draft version of the law echoes the idea put forward in the recital 18 of the Directive: “other travel services are considered to be a significant part of the package if they constitute at least 25% of the value of the combination.”. In my view, the “significance” in this case should be considered primarily in relation to the original package and only secondarily use the 25% threshold if it is not objectively possible to determine whether the other travel service constitutes a significant part of the package. Similarly, it is not possible to give an example of all cases where other travel services are an integral part of transportation, accommodation or rental of a vehicle. For example, a day trip lasting 6 to 8 hours during a weekend trip is more clearly a significant part of the whole than during a week-long trip, which may include other separate trips. First and foremost, the trader should assess the