Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

998 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE (e.g. by telephone). The national norms also do not establish a straightforward rule concerning package travel contract form. Some provisions of the Civil Code (e.g. Articles 6.749 (1) and 6.748 (4)) and the Law on Tourism 42 make an impression that package travel contract can be concluded in oral form as well. However, the following provisions of the Directive were not transposed: the rule setting that, for package travel contracts concluded by telephone, the organiser and, if applicable, the retailer have to provide the traveller with the indicated standard information (Article 5 of the Directive); and the rule stating that relevant information has to be provided not only in package travel contract itself, but also in confirmation of the contract (Article 7 (2) of the Directive). It might be that there is just an oversight of the transposition process. Secondly, it can be argued whether the national legislation has transposed, in the right way, the requirements concerning the form by which the information has be provided to the traveller. Article 5 (3) of the Travel Directive states that the pre-contractual information “shall be provided in a clear, comprehensible and prominent manner. Where such information is provided in writing, it shall be legible” . It should be noted that, in the Directive, there is no direct rule that the pre-contractual information must always be provided in written or in other equalled to written form. On the contrary, the requirements to provide such information in a clear, comprehensible and prominent way makes an impression that the oral presentation of this information, meeting the mentioned criteria, is also possible. The same requirements apply to the changes of the pre-contractual information (Article 6 (1) of the Travel Directive), which inter alia provides that “the organiser shall communicate all changes to the pre-contractual information to the traveller in a clear, comprehensible and prominent manner before the conclusion of the package travel contract” . However, it should be stressed that while (as it was mentioned before) the Travel Directive is not strict about the form by which the pre-contractual information is provided to the traveller, the same cannot be said about the national regulation. Article 6.748 (1) of the Civil Code specifies the form of provision of the information, laying down that, before the package travel contract’s conclusion, the tour organiser must, when offering the services provided for sale, provide the tourist with clear, comprehensible and non- -misleading information, in writing and on paper or another durable medium. This kind of wording makes it not possible to provide the traveller with pre- 42 The Article 5 (4) of Law on Tourism states that the government-authorised body must approve the information forms used to conclude a package travel contract when the travel retailer and tourist communicate remotely (by phone or e-mail).