Tourism Law in Europe

13 was under the impression that he contracted directly with GoLeif.dk, which thus had to be regarded as the consumer's contracting party. A second and interconnected key premise is that the GoLeif.dk website did not make it sufficiently clear that customers were not trading with GoLeif.dk, but instead with the airline delivering the flight. The intermediary status was signalled via the booking flow on the website, as well as in the terms and conditions below the heading "responsibility for the implementation of the journey" which stated that GoLeif.dk acted as "intermediary" and that GoLeif.dk did not "sell" trips in their own name. However, the court found that it could not be assumed that a general consumer could determine his or her legal position in relation to GoLeif.dk solely on basis of this information. In addition, GoLeif.dk was described in the travel conditions as "technical organiser" without this term being described in detail. Furthermore, both the booking flow on the website and the terms and conditions described an opportunity for the consumer to purchase “bankruptcy coverage” from the retailer. This premise concerns when GoLeif.dk can be deemed to have achieved a valid agent disclaimer both contractually and from the information on their website. In this regard, the high court attaches decisive importance to the reservation not being explicitly stated, since the consumer acting as an agreement reader is not able to correctly decode the implications associated with the wording of the contract. Hence, for an agent reservation to be valid, it must be written in plain, clear and intelligible language. These requirements are the cumulative conditions for intermediary reservations to be considered validly agreed inter partes in consumer contracts. 52 In a decision from 2018, the Western Regional Court concluded that the accommodation platform Booking.com exhibited a valid intermediary disclaimer when they provided accommodation at a farm hotel in Sweden. 53 The appellant in Denmark, acting as a consumer, argued that Booking.com must be regarded as the contracting party and therefore be subject to the contractual obligations. The consumer claimed that the accommodation service suffered from actual deficiencies as the farm hotel was under renovation during the stay. 52 GoLeif has subsequently changed its standard terms in order to achieve a valid agent disclaimer. 53 Western Regional Court case U.2018.574.V