THE PACKAGE TRAVEL ACT AND THE COVID19 PANDEMIC new Travel Guarantee Act, the possibilities of maintaining this further scope were discussed. However, the discussions ended up in a wording in accordance with the PTD and compensation is thus now only possible to the extent that a trip has been canceled due to the insolvency of the organiser. 3.1 Travel guarantee According to Article 17 of the PTD, Member States shall ensure that organisers established in their territory provide security for the refund of all payments made by or on behalf of travelers insofar as the relevant services are not performed because of the organiser’s insolvency. If transport is included in the package travel contract, organisers shall also provide security for the travelers’ repatriation. In Sweden, this obligation has been implemented by the Travel Guarantee Act (2018:1218). Section 6 of the Act stipulates that the travel guarantee for a package shall ensure that the payments made for the package are paid back to the traveler to the extent that the package travel contract is not performed due to the organiser’s insolvency. If a passenger transport is included in the package, the travel guarantee must also ensure home transport, and accommodation if necessary while waiting for the home transport, to the extent that the passenger transport is not performed due to the organiser’s insolvency. In the spring of 2020, many trips were canceled due to the pandemic. Since travel companies basically lost all their operations and since the Package Travel Act required a refund within 14 days, many of the Swedish organisers suffered economically. As there is no legislation that imposes an obligation on travel service providers to refund in the event of cancellation due to UEC, this meant that most travel companies faced a very difficult financial situation. Reimbursement in accordance with the provisions of the Package Travel Act was thus not possible for most companies, as they lacked funds. Many travelers therefore requested compensation from the travel guarantees furnished by the organiser. During the spring, two major travel companies were further subjected to reconstruction, which prompted a number of their customers to turn to Kammarkollegiet, which is the authority responsible for travel guarantees in Sweden. However, the Authority was quickly able to establish that the right to compensation from a company’s travel guarantee presupposed that the trip was canceled due to the company’s insolvency or that a travel service included in the package trip was not provided due to the company’s insolvency. It is thus the reason for the canceled trip that is decisive for whether there is a right to compensation or not. In most cases, the trips that were canceled during
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