Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

LITHUANIA | DANGUOLĖ BUBLIENĖ AND IEVA NAVICKAITĖ-SAKALAUSKIENĖ 995 the hotels and their clients 36 . The dispute between the parties arose, when upon the traveller’s late arrival to the hotel, without noticing this fact, the accommodation service was not provided. The Court stated that, in this case, there was no reason to apply the provisions on the organiser’s liability and their obligations, because in legal relations, when the sole accommodation is provided, the regulation on remunerated services is applied. The definitions of the travel package and linked tourist service agreements are transposed into Lithuanian legislation almost verbatim . There was no specific indication or explanation concerning these definitions and criteria which should be used for the separation of the ‘click-through’ 37 booking packages (Article 3 (2), (b), (v) of the Directive) from the ‘click-through linked travel arrangement’ (Article 3 (4), (b) of the Directive). As the European Commission explained, “it is the booking process which will determine whether the traveller has booked a package, a linked travel arrangement or merely stand-alone services”, namely the characteristics of such bookings can either lead to the creation of a package with full protection, a linked travel arrangement with limited protection or stand- -alone services, not covered by the Travel Directive. The European Commission further clarifies that “the criteria for defining ‘click-through packages’ were subject to lengthy discussions during the legislative negotiations. The definition requires that the first trader transmit to the second trader the specific traveller’s personal data, i.e. the traveller’s name, payment details and email address. A ‘click-through linked travel arrangement’ requires that the first trader facilitates “in a targeted manner” the purchase of at least one additional travel service. In both cases (‘click-through package’ and ‘click-through linked travel arrangement’) the traveller must book the second travel service within 24 hours of the booking of the first travel service. Beyond this time-limit, the different travel services are simply stand-alone travel services” 38 . Hence, it might be concluded that the 36 The ruling of the Supreme Court of Lithuania 23 of June 2016, case No. 3K-3-322-686/2016. 37 When the traveller books different travel services from different websites (different points of sale), but the bookings are related through links provided from website to website, this is considered a ‘click-through’ booking (21.06.2019 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the provisions of the Directive 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015, on package travel and linked travel arrangements, applying to online bookings made at the different points of sale (SWD (2019) 270 final), available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/live_work_travel_in_the_eu/consumers/documents/ com_2019_270_f1_report_from_commission_en.pdf). 38 21.06.2019, Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the provisions of the Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015, on package travel and linked travel arrangements applying to online bookings made at the different points of sale (SWD (2019) 270 final) available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/live_work_travel_in_the_eu/consumers/documents/ com_2019_270_f1_report_from_commission_en.pdf).