Sustainable Tourism Law

570 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW – where minors, unaccompanied by a parent or another authorised person, travel on the basis of a package travel contract which includes accommodation, information enabling direct contact with the minor or the person responsible for the minor at the minor’s place of stay; – information on available in-house complaint handling procedures and on alternative dispute resolution (‘ADR’) mechanisms pursuant to Directive 2013/11/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, and, where applicable, on the ADR entity by which the trader is covered and on the online dispute resolution platform pursuant to Regulation (EU) Nr. 524/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council; – information on the traveller’s right to transfer the contract to another traveller in accordance with Article 9. With the new PTD, a special standard information form (as set out in the annexes of the directive) will also have to be communicated to the clients at the same time. The organiser and the retailer shall bear the burden of proof to establish that the above information was communicated to the travellers in due course (Article 8 of the PTD). In France, information currently has to be provided in writing, when possible (Article R.211-6 of the tourism code). Failure to provide a written contract may even sometimes give rise to severe consequence for the travel agent: he may be deprived from the right to request payment for the packages, even though the client did travel 9 , or he may not refuse cancellation by travellers before the start of the package 10 . In concrete terms, French organisers will have to amend their general terms, as well as any commercial documents describing the package in order to comply with their new duties of information. However, French organisers are mainly concerned with the extent of such information and their details. Indeed, it results from the new PTD that the list of information to be communicated to travellers has not only increased but requires the organisers and/or the retailers to be more proactive with their clients. For instance, it is currently admitted under French case law that particular requests or needs have to be raised by the client to the package seller before the conclusion of the contract. French lower courts ruled that disabled persons had to inform the organiser or retailer of their special needs when entering into the 9 CA Paris, 29 June 2001, nr.2000/15149. 10 CA Paris, 12 January 2012, nr.10/10325.