Tourism Law in Europe

 sec. 20: entry into force  sec. 21: execution  sec. 22: implementation note Austria did not make use of the options of providing a right of the traveller to withdraw from the package travel contract within a period of 14 days without giving any reason 26 ; introducing provisions under which the retailer is also responsible for the performance of the package 27 or a limitation of the organiser’s liability according to international conventions which are not binding for the Union 28 . 3.1. Excursus: Contractual Limitation of the Organiser’s Liability – Legislative Confusion in Austria While article 14(4) of the PTD provides that “... the package travel contract may limit compensation to be paid by the organiser as long as that limitation does not apply to personal injury or damage caused intentionally or with negligence and does not amount to less than three times the total price of the package ” its Austrian implementation in sec. 12(4) of the Austrian Package Travel Act states that “ The compensation to be paid by the organiser may not be limited in the contract in advance ”. This means that the PTD explicitly allows for a contractual limitation of the organiser’s liability unless such limitation applies to personal injury or damage caused by fault whereas the Austrian Package Travel Act regards any contractual limitation of the organiser’s liability in advance as unlawful . The Austrian legislator’s explanation for this clear contradiction is that the final sentence of Article 14(4) PTD has not been implemented because the PTD would not provide a particular dogmatic basis for the attribution of damage. While the liability under the PTD seemed not to be linked to fault, according to Austrian understanding, civil liability usually depended on fault. Since the organiser was not liable at all under Austrian law without fault, any possibility of contractual limitation of the organiser’s liability would be pointless if it wasn’t even applicable to damages caused by slight negligence. 26 Art. 12 para 5 PTD. 27 Art. 13 para 1 PTD. 28 Art. 14 para 4 PTD.