INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW Europe.11 Thirdly, as far as the unclear and excessively complex wording of the directive is concerned, the concept of “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” was found to be problematic since there is no particular guidance as to the relevance, evidence or legal value of official travel warnings.12 All this led the Commission to issue the Proposal for the revision and modernisation of the Package Travel Directive which is further discussed below. III. COMMISSION PROPOSAL IN THE LIGHT OF CJEU CASE LAW As stressed by the Commission, the aim of revising the Directive is to strengthen the level of consumer protection and improve the functioning of the internal market in the package travel sector.13 In addition, the revision should also bring closer legislation on passengers’ rights and legislation on package travels, especially regarding vouchers and business-to-business refunds. It should nevertheless be noted that many of the proposed changes have already been suggested by the CJEU in its case law which is discussed in detail below. a. Definitions In order to bring more clarity to the wording of the Directive, the Commission suggests revising some of its definitions. A more detailed definition of a package has been proposed so as to explicitly include services that are purchased from separate traders through linked online bookings processes if a traveller’s personal details are transferred from one trader to another trader. In addition, the Proposal also explicitly defines a package as bookings of different types of travel services for the same journey at one point of sale within a short period of time if services are selected before the traveller concludes the first contract. For instance, if a traveller decides to book an accommodation and rent a car at the destination to which afterwards they buy a flight ticket, this is considered as a package according to the Proposal (Article 1 of the proposed Directive). In this regard, the revised Directive offers a more detailed definition of when a combination of 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive (EU) 2015/2302 to make the protection of travellers more effective and to simplify and clarify certain aspects of the Directive of 29 November 2023, COM(2023) 905 final, p. 2.
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