Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

812 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE terrorism, risks to human health, natural disasters, weather conditions, etc 14 . Therefore, it is likely that the existence of threats or even the possibility of such events at destinations will be interpreted as a “serious security problem”, even though the advice and recommendation of the foreign office are not necessarily alarming. Travellers will thus be entitled to a full refund but they will not be able to claim further compensation (e.g. moral damages, etc.). In a French case, the visit to an archaeological site, which was included in a travel package, was cancelled because of significant floods in Thailand a few days before the start of the package. For the Court, this event constituted a circumstance for which the travellers were entitled to terminate the contract at no costs, even though all the other travel services agreed in the package for a thirteen day holiday were not affected at the destination. The Court continued ruling that such a visit was a substantial service of the package, hence the right to terminate it 15 . French courts interpreted again with severity the right to terminate the package. By implementing the new PTD, it may then be possible to attempt to mitigate such effects, given that two requirements are now expressly listed: (i) the event occurs at the destination or its immediate vicinity and (ii) the event significantly affects the performance of the package (or the carriage to the destination). The result is that organisers will have to face many situations where there is an accrued risk of cancellation of the package by the travellers. To date, the interpretations given by French courts in such situations have been quite severe to the organiser. Now that this right is expressly mentioned in the new PTD, the French organisers and retailers are quite concerned with regards to their financial position. – Withdrawal linked to off-premises contracts (Article 12.5). The new PTD now expressly recognizes a right of withdrawal for the travellers. Such a right has to be exercised within 14 days from the date of conclusion of the package travel contract. French law expressly excludes the right to withdraw from a package contract concluded at a distance and off-premises (Article L.221-2 of the French 14 Recitals 31. 15 Cass. Civ. 1, 2 october 2013, nr.12-23568.