Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

996 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE main criteria for the separation of ‘click-through packages’ from ‘click-through linked travel arrangement’ is whether the trader transmits the traveller data to the second trader or the trader acts in a targeted manner with the purpose of pushing the traveller to purchase additional travel services. However, it seems that this criterion is quite blurry and does not ensure any certainty for both the travellers and traders, and might create difficulties in the interpretation of the law. It might be very complicated for the consumer to prove that the trader transmits the traveller data to a second trader but does not act in a targeted manner with the purpose of purchasing additional travel services. If this interpretation depended on whether the linked travel service provider has informed the consumer, as required under Article 19 of the Directive, the level of consumer protection provided by the Travel Directive would exclusively depend on the behaviour (will) of the trader. That way raises doubts concerning the effectiveness of the Directive. If even the provisions are interpreted in such a way that the burden of proof falls, in any case, on the trader, the ambiguity of the provision may discourage the consumer from the protection of his rights. Indeed, it seems that this issue is pretending to be one of the most complicated issues in the process of implementation and application of the Directive. Mulevičienė &Rusinas 39 criticise that the definition of package travel contract was not correctly implemented in the national law since agreement might be treated as a package agreement also in the situations where not one but several contracts are concluded. According to these authors’ view, Article 6.747 (1) of the Civil Code does not refer clearly to such a situation. Article 6.747 (1) of the Civil Code defines package travel contract in the following way: “Under a package travel contract, one party (the tour organiser) undertakes to organise, in return for payment, a package tour for the other party (the tourist), while the tourist undertakes to pay the tour organiser for the services provided. A package tour is also considered to be package tour when it is sold through separate contracts between the tourist and the tourist service provider(s) for the provision of tourist services”. As for the definitions of the terms ‘travel retailer’, ‘tour organiser’, ‘package tour’, ‘tourist’ and ‘tourist service provider’, Article 6.747 (2) of the Civil Code refers to the Law on Tourism. Taking into account that the regulation clearly refers that a package tour is also considered as a package tour when sold through separate contracts between the tourist and the tourist service 39 Salvija Mulevičienė; Edmundas Rusinas. The problems of Transposition of Travel Directive into national law and its implementation. Jurisprudence, 2019, 26 (1), p. 210.