Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

910 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE Applying the new regulation is limited, however, to travel packages whose duration is not less than 24 hours or does not include an overnight stay; therefore simple excursions are excluded, with the aim of avoiding an unnecessary burden on the organiser in relation to situations where the need to protect travellers is decidedly lower 22 . Furthermore, the combination of individual travel services makes it possible to create a package travel only if they represent a portion equal to or greater than 25 percent of the value of the combination and are not advertised, do not represent an essential element, or are selected and purchased only after the start of the execution of a transport, accommodation or vehicle rental service ( ex art. 33, par. 2, Tourism Code) 23 . During the transposition, care was taken to integrate the articulation with some indications present in recitals 17, 18 and 19, and to maintain the principle according to which the separate invoicing of the various elements within the same package does not relieve the organiser or the retailer from the obligations under the law, keeping unchanged the provisions established by the Tourism Code. 22 The current art. 32, par. 2, lett. a , of the Tourism Code restricts the field of application and significantly innovates with respect to the previously applicable regulations, which had eliminated the requirement of duration not less than 24 hours or the presence of at least one overnight stay, originally provided for by Legislative Decree No. 111/1995. The legislator has thus complied with the provisions of the art. 2, par. 2, lett. a), of the Directive (EU) 2015/2302, since there is less need to protect travellers in the case of short journeys and to avoid unnecessary burdens for professionals (Recital 19), choosing not to avail themselves of the right granted by the Directive, to maintain or introduce corresponding provisions for packages and related travel services that cover a time frame of less than 24 hours and do not include accommodation (Recital 21). 23 According to with Recital 17 of the Directive (EU) 2015/2302, the Italian legislator specifies that financial and insurance services, as well as long-term language courses are excluded from the application of the European Union regulations, in line with the jurisprudence of EU Court of Justice 11 February 1999, in Case C-237/97, AFS Intercultural Programs Finland ry (the Directive 90/314/EEC did not apply to journeys consisting of school exchanges lasting approximately six months or a year, which had as its purpose the fact that the student attended a school in a host country to familiarize himself with its society and its culture and during which the student would stay for free with a host family, as if he were a member of the same). Housing services for residential purposes are also excluded; with reference to tourist rentals, which in effect constitute a travel service, see V. Cuffaro, Le locazioni turistiche , in F. Delfini – F. Morandi (eds.), I contratti del turismo, dello sport e della cultura , cit., p. 119, and P. Valore, Sub artt. 52 e 53 , in D.lgs. 23 maggio 2011, n. 79, Codice del turismo , cit., p. 1426; F. Lazzaro – M. Di Marzo, Le locazioni per uso abitativo , Giuffrè, Milano, 2007, p. 59; F. Pertolati, La riforma della locazione abitativa , in V. Cuffaro (dir.), La locazione , Zanichelli, Bologna, 2009, p. 165; V. Cuffaro, La locazione di immobili , in I contratti di utilizzazione dei beni , vol. IX, Trattato dei contratti Rescigno-Gabrielli , Utet, Torino, 2008, p. 23; S. Giove, Locazioni ad uso diverso dall’abitazione , ivi, p. 175; P. Scalettaris, Le locazioni dell’abitazione diversa da quella principale del conduttore , in Arch. loc. cond. , 2012, p. 614; Id., Primi appunti sulle disposizioni in tema di locazione contenute nel nuovo “Codice del turismo” , ivi, p. 124; C. Sforza Fogliani, Multiproprietà, locazioni turistiche ed altri temi immobiliari , ivi, 2012, p. 1; M. Trimarchi, La locazione , in Trattato di diritto civile del Consiglio Nazionale del Notariato , edited by P. Perlingieri, Napoli, 2013, p. 92; G. Bordolli, Le locazioni abitative transitorie , in Immobili proprietà , 2014, p. 390; F. Padovini, La liberalizzazione del mercato delle grandi locazioni ad uso non abitativo , in Nuove leggi civ. comm. , 2015, p. 429; P. Valore, Delle locazioni turistiche , in V. Cuffaro (ed.), Codice del consumo , Giuffrè, Milano, ed. 2015, p. 1153; at a handbook level, M. Cocuccio, Le locazioni turistiche , in V. Franceschelli – F. Morandi, Manuale di diritto del turismo , cit., p. 135.