Proposed Revision of the European Package Travel Directive: Plié or Relevé in the EU Legislative Ballet? Karmen Lutman * I. Introduction. II. Challenges to the Package Travel Directive brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. III. Commission Proposal in the light of CJEU case law. IV. Open issues and concluding remarks. This paper aims to analyse the Commission’s proposal to modernise the Package Travel Directive in the light of the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. By critically evaluating the proposed changes with regard to the CJEU case law, it strives to assess to what extent the reform meets the needs of practice and achieves the goal of the adequate protection of travellers. By doing so, the author takes a closer look at the concepts of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, refunds and insolvency issues. Keywords: Package Travel Directive, EU travel law, consumer protection, COVID-19, unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, vouchers, travel restrictions. I. INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic has brought several challenges to European tourism legislation and uncompromisingly revealed its shortcomings. The Package Travel Directive1 (hereinafter also referred to as the “Directive”) was challenged mostly by mass cancellations, organisers’ liquidity problems and refund issues. Consumers were massively deprived of their rights and many travel organisers went bankrupt. Since the Package Travel Directive was not primarily designed for a long-term state of emergency on a global level, many EU Member States adopted emergency legislation depriving consumers of their rights granted by the Package Travel Directive.2 DOI 10.60559/ijtthl2024-001 * Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, and Researcher at the Institute for Comparative Law at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, karmen.lutman@pf.uni-lj.si. 1 Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on package travel and linked travel arrangements, amending Regulation (EC) No. 2006/2004 and Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 90/314/EEC, OJ L 326, 11/12/2015. 2 See: Torres, Melgosa Arcos (eds.), Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry.
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