to risks to their health and safety, considering, where appropriate, personal factors relating to the individual situation of those travellers. The assessment of such effects – the Court declares - must be made from the perspective of an average traveller who is reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect at the date of termination of the package travel contract in question27. VII. THE TRAVELLER’S WITHDRAWAL ACCORDING TO ITALIAN CASE LAW It seems appropriate to dwell on one last aspect. I recall that just around fifteen years have passed since the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) defined the material consideration (causa concreta) of the package contract in relation to an epidemic-type contingency. I am referring to the famous (at least in the Italian context) ‘Dengue case’28. The case concerned the withdrawal of two travellers from a tourist package contract in Cuba due to the occurrence of a dengue epidemic on the island. According to the Supreme Court, in particular, the ascertained existence of an endemic outbreak did not allow the travellers, in view of the danger of contracting the disease, to enjoy entirely the tourist service. In other words, the supervening disease had rendered impossible not the journey but the opportunity for travellers to delight the holiday. Subsequently, despite strong criticism from more than one scholar29, the Italian courts reiterated and clarified in many other judgments the principle elaborated by the Court of Cassation in the ‘Dengue case’30. For Italian case law, the package travel contract constitutes a specific type of contract case whose cause is the purpose of leisure. Therefore, if after the conclusion of the contract unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances will significantly affect the 27 CJEU 29 February 2024, C-299/22, § 72. 28 Cass. Civ., 24 July 2007, no. 16315, in Nuova giurisprudenza civile commentata, 2008, p. 531 ss., note of S. NARDI, Contratto di viaggio «tutto compreso» e irrealizzabilità della sua funzione concreta; in Giurisprudenza italiana, 2008, c. 1133, note of B. IZZI, Causa concreta del contratto e sopravvenienze del contratto di viaggio vacanza tutto compreso; in Danno e Responsabilità, 2008, p. 845, con nota di L. DELLI PRISCOLI, Contratti di viaggio e rilevanza della finalità turistica. On the topic. M. ARRIGO, Sopravvenuta impossibilità di beneficiare della prestazione: ovvero la discussa “liberalizzazione” della risoluzione contrattuale nei contratti sinallagmatici, in Jus Civile, 2019, 4, p. 300. 29 For all, S. PAGLIANTINI, Tra diritto delle Corti e teoria dei contro limiti: il recesso del viaggiatore dal contratto di pacchetto turistico ai sensi dell’art. 12 dir. 2015/2302 UE, in Europa e Diritto Privato, 2018, p. 41 ss. 30 Among the most recent decisions of ‘Corte di Cassazione’, see Cass. Civ. 6 December 2024, n. 31368, in DeJure; Cass. Civ. 29 March 2019, n. 8766, in DeJure; Cass. Civ., 10 July 2018, no. 18047, in DeJure. 28 ANGELO VENCHIARUTTI
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