The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

“ Contracting State may set a higher limit for contracts concluded through a place of business located in its territory ” (Arts. 13.2 & 22.2), but the main objective is to limit the liability (also for extra-contractual claims, Art. 25) and the chain of providers (Art. 26). Only “ the intention of causing loss or damage ” or “ a deliberate disregard or inexcusable lack of awareness of the prejudicial consequences which might result from such conduct ” breach the limits established by the CCV convention (Art. 27). The doctrine considers that it is not a strict liability, but a limited presumed one 28 . The Convention establishes periods of limitation for actions, either “ based on death, wounding or other bodily or mental injury caused to the traveller ” (2 years, Art. 30.1) or other different causes (1 year, Art. 30.2). It is remarkable that the CCV Convention allows, in 1970, a very general arbitration clause, in Article 29, also for consumers or travellers. However, not all options taken by the CCV Convention are against the existing national consumer laws or European Directives standards, as some could be useful regulation in this time of COVID-19, for instance. I.2. The CCV Convention’s Solutions for COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has had a severe impact on many travels in 2020 29 , and some of the CCV solutions could be useful to alleviate the problems that arose with the pandemic. The CCV Convention allows, without great problems, the substitution of the traveller by another person (Art. 8), as well as the cancellation, in whole or in part, of the contract by the traveller, provided the traveller “ compensates the organising travel agent in accordance with domestic law or the provisions of the contract ” (Art. 9). The CCV Convention also limits the price increase by 10% if the travel must be change or the traveller has the right to cancel the travel (Art. 11). 28 MAPELLI LOPEZ, Enrique. El convenio internacional de Bruselas de 1970 sobre contrato de viaje y su relación con la responsabilidad del transportador aéreo, 7º Anuario de Derecho Internacional 145 (1983- 1984), pp. 161-163. 29 Vid . OECD, Evaluating the initial impact of COVID-19 containment measures on economic activity, updated on 10 June 2020, available a t http://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/evaluating-the- initial-impact-of-covid-19-containment-measures-on-economic-activity-b1f6b68b/ ( accessed on 01 July 2020).