REVISION OF THE EUROPEAN PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE 396/2142 deserves attention. In this case, the applicants booked a package holiday to Gran Canaria for 13-27 March 2020. They managed to land on Gran Canaria, but on 15 March, the Spanish authorities introduced antipandemic measures and the applicants were only permitted to leave their room to eat, while access to sunbeds and swimming pools was prohibited and the entertainment programme was discontinued. They returned home early, on 20 March, and requested from the travel organiser a 70% reduction of the price of their package. Although it was argued by the opponent that similar measures were adopted in the place of the applicants’ residence (so their movement would be restricted in any case even if they stayed at home), the Court held that this cannot relieve the organiser’s duty to provide a price reduction if there is a lack of conformity of the services provided.43 Moreover, the CJEU made it clear that the failure to perform or the improper performance of the package travel services due to public restrictions should not be considered as a general life risk borne by the traveller44 and is also not a risk which is attributable to the traveller.45 Refunds Restitution after the termination of package travel contracts turned out to be highly problematic during the COVID-19 crisis. Refund periods were de facto or de iure (by the emergency laws of the Member States) extended to several months or even years while many tourists did not get a refund at all. In order to avoid liquidity problems, travel organisers refused to make restitution of (pre-) payments and offered vouchers instead. As far as the extension of the 14-days-period for a refund is concerned (see Article 12(4)), the CJEU explicitly held in case C-407/21 that the national legislation extending this period (even if it aims at solving the liquidity problems of travel organisers) is in breach of the Package Travel Directive. A fortiori, as held in case C-540/2146, national legislation which releases, in a generalised manner, all package travel organisers from their refund duty regarding package travel contracts which could not be performed due to the COVID19 pandemic cannot be justified by the conditions governing reliance on force majeure and thus breaches EU law.47 42 CJEU, case C-396/21, KT, NS v FTI Touristik GmbH of 12 January 2023. 43 Para. 33 of the Judgment. 44 Ibid. 45 Para. 34 of the Judgment. 46 CJEU, case C-540/21, European Commission v Slovak Republic of 8 June 2023. 47 Paras. 82 – 89 of the Judgment.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==