by Law 4/2022, of 25 February, on the Protection of Consumers and Users in Situations of Social and Economic Vulnerability is paradoxical without there being any reason to justify such an amendment, especially in view of its transcendence, as I had already anticipated that it definitively rectifies the position that has been followed with regard to the liability of package tour operators since the repealed LVC of 1995. The wording of the current Article 161.1 is as follows : 20 "Organisers and retailers of package travel shall be liable to the traveller for the proper performance of the travel services included in the contract in accordance with the obligations incumbent on them due to their scope of management of the package, regardless of whether these services are to be performed by themselves or by other providers. Notwithstanding the above, the traveller may address claims for nonfulfilment or defective fulfilment of the services that make up the package, indistinctly to the organisers or retailers, who are obliged to inform the traveller of the existing liability regime, process the claim directly or through referral to whoever corresponds according to the scope of management, as well as to inform the traveller of the progress of the claim, even if it is outside their scope of management. The retailer's failure to handle the complaint will mean that he will be jointly and severally liable with the organiser vis-à-vis the traveller for the correct fulfilment of the obligations of the package that correspond to the organiser due to his scope of management. Likewise, the organiser's failure to handle the complaint shall mean that he shall be jointly and severally liable with the retailer vis-à-vis the traveller for the proper fulfilment of the package travel obligations incumbent on the retailer under his scope of management. (....)". At first sight, it might appear that there is no difference between this article 161.1 and its predecessor, since both establish the liability of organisers and retailers for non-conformity or non-performance in the execution of the services that make up the package. However, the fundamental difference between the two is the specific omission of the reference to the joint and several liability of the two operators, which had been maintained since the incorporation of the LVC into the TRLGDCU in 2007, as well as in its reform of 2018. I reproduce only those aspects that are of interest for the purposes of this paper. 20
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