Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ITALY | FRANCESCO MORANDI 907 It must be acknowledged, however, that according to the same art. 4 of the Directive (EU) 2015/2302, Member States are not entitled to maintain or introduce in their national law any regulations diverging from those established by the Directive itself, “including more or less stringent provisions which would ensure a different level of traveller protection”. Likewise, in line with the traditional approach, the TourismCode maintains the organiser’s position separate from that of the package travel retailer, regulating the obligations and responsibilities of the operators in a different manner, depending on the stipulation of a package travel contract or an “intermediate travel contract”. With reference to the basic Directive criteria that guided the preparation of the wording, the Italian legislator considered it appropriate to retrieve the indications contained in the various “Recitals” of the Directive 15 , in order to guarantee complete harmonization of the package travel regulations and to favour its interpretation in conformity with the European Union law 16 . From the systematic point of view, it was decided to place the provisions transposing the Directive into the “Code of the state legislation on tourism market regulation” (the so-called “Tourism Code” in Annex 1 – Legislative Decree 23 May 2011, No. 79) 17 . 15 With the aim of achieving full harmonization of the rules of the Member States, the new European Union legislation on package travel makes an attempt to regulate every possible case through a typically Anglo-Saxon caseload approach, which attempts to offer, sometimes hypertrophied and redundant, a regulatory solution to all possible cases (in this sense, the structure of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 differs strongly from the approach of the previous Directive 90/314/EEC). For possible repercussions on contractual practice, see M. Foglia, Il contratto autoregolato: le merger clauses, Giappichelli, Torino, 2015, p. 218, and G. Bellantuono, I contratti incompleti nell’economia e nel diritto , Cedam, Padova, 2000; E. Gabrielli, Contratto completo e clausola di arbitraggio , in Riv. dir. civ. , 2001, II, p. 291; A. Fici, Il contratto “incompleto” , Giappichelli, Torino, 2005, p. 217; G. Clerico, Incompletezza del contratto e responsabilità delle parti , in Riv. crit. dir. priv. , 2005, p. 593; A. Fici, Contratto incompleto , in Dig. disc. priv ., Sez. civ ., Agg . III, vol. I, I, A-G, UTET, Torino, 2007, p. 412; E. Guerinoni, Incompletezza e completamento del contratto , Giuffrè, Milano, 2007, p. 27; F. Bottoni, Incompletezza del contratto e riserva di determinazione convenzionale , ESI, Napoli, 2013; see also F. Macario, Adeguamento e rinegoziazione nei contratti a lungo termine , Jovene, Napoli, 1996, p. 327. 16 In literature see L.A. Scarano, L’interpretazione conforme al diritto dell’UE nella giurisprudenza civile di legittimità , in A. Bernardi (ed.), L’interpretazione conforme al diritto dell’Unione europea. Profili e limiti di un vincolo problematico , Jovene, Napoli, 2015, p. 200. With reference to the subject, in relation to package travel contract, see the question decided by Corte cost., 30 marzo 2012, No. 75, in Dir. trasp ., 2012, p. 455, with a comment by A. Tamburro, Illegittimo il rinvio dell’art. 15 d.lgs. 17 marzo 1995 n. 111 alla Convenzione di Bruxelles del 1970 sul contratto di viaggio per la limitazione del risarcimento del danno alla persona , in Dir. tur. ., 2012, p. 30, with a comment by C. Alvisi and by G. Tassoni, Contratto di viaggio e danni alla persona: la limitazione risarcitoria è costituzionalmente illegittima – Un doppio commento , in Resp. civ. , 2012, p. 487, with a comment by F. Romeo, Viaggi tutto compreso e illegittimità della norma che prevede un massimale per il risarcimento dei danni alla persona , in Resp. civ. , 2012, p. 1518, with a comment by S. Vernizzi, La consulta ed il limite risarcitorio per il danno alla persona , in Contr. , 2013, p. 357, with a comment by E. Ruffo, Pacchetti turistici all inclusive: addio al vecchio limite per il risarcimento dei danni alla persona , in Corr. giur. , 2013, p. 901, with a comment by A. Maccarone, Il contratto di viaggio “tutto compreso” e i limiti alla risarcibilità del danno alla persona . 17 Unfortunately, the proposal advanced by G. De Cristofaro, La nuova disciplina europea dei contratti di viaggio , cit., pp. 21 e 23, to insert the new regulation related to the package travel contract in the Civil Code – in a special Chief to be introduced in Title III of Book IV, dedicated to “Single contracts”, Chief (VII-bis or VIII-bis) that should be reasonably placed immediately after the one containing the contract regulation or the one containing the transport regulation – has not been accepted.