International Journal of Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Law 1|2024

CJEU CASE C-299/22 M.D. V UAB TEZ TOUR between unavoidable and extraordinary and force majeure circumstances, stated that"<...> despite the fact that there is no reference to force majeure in this Directive, this concept of "unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances" concretises the concept of force majeure in this Directive, and this is a comprehensive implementation of the concept for the purposes of the Directive" (p. 29 of the conclusion). The Court of Justice took a similar view in its judgment of 8 June 2023 in Case No c-407/21 UFC- Que choisir and CLCV (paragraphs 54, 56 of the judgment). The case thus reaffirmed the important point in legal doctrine that the extraordinary circumstances are a comprehensive implementation of the concept of force majeure. 2. ON THE FIRST QUESTION REFERRED FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING It should be recalled that dominant position view in the legal doctrine was that the meaning of recommendations is not the subject of positive law but of legal doctrine, where recommendations are seen only as the main and most important indicators of extraordinary circumstances ( Schmidt. Rechtsfragen zur Corona Krise, 2020, 2.Auflage, Verlag C.H.Beck, s. 198, Fuehrich/Staudinger etc). The importance of the recommendations as the main and most important indicator of extraordinary circumstances is due to the fact that it can often be difficult for travellers to assess and identify from an ex ante perspective that the circumstances that have arisen will have a significant impact on the performance of the package, and therefore it has been recognised by legal scholars that the European Union-wide assessment of travel security is an important, but not the only, indicator of extraordinary circumstances. The Travel Directive contains a non-exhaustive (illustrative) list of circumstances which have a significant impact on the performance of the package, such as terrorism, a serious risk to human health such as the outbreak of a serious disease at the place of destination, or natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes, or meteorological conditions which make it impossible to travel to the destination safely (recital o point 31 of the Travel Directive). However, the Travel Directive deliberately does not refer to specific criteria (indicators), giving them legal significance for the purpose of establishing the existence of extraordinary circumstances. This is also the position of the European Commission in its report COM(2021)90 final, p. 5.2.3, where it states that <...> the Directive itself is

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