The Package Travel Act and the Covid19 pandemic by Jonas Thyberg

it means that people are being isolated. A quarantine limits travelers' freedom to move around at the destination. For most trips, a quarantine of 14 days would mean that the quarantine would last throughout the trip and the travel experience would thus be essentially completely diferent from what the traveler had reason to expect. Travelers has thus had the right to cancel free of charge if it was obvious before departure that they would have to be quarantined on arrival at the destination. For many trips that were to take place during the spring of 2020, travelers wanted to cancel as soon as it became clear that there was an ongoing pandemic, regardless of if there was an outbreak at the destination or not. A vast majority of travelers were afraid and thus did not want to travel. This was especially the case for many travelers that belonged to risk groups. ARN has in several decisions noted that the traveler must prove that there is a risk for the traveler’s health to cancel a package free of charge. In its information, the Commission also states that a “subjective feeling of fear would not be sufcient”. The industry has claimed that, in order for travelers to have a right to cancel a package without paying a cancellation fee, the traveler must show that the destination was afected by the pandemic during the period in which the trip was to take place. As conditions changed rapidly during this period and restrictions and travel advice were issued, changed or amended with short notice, the industry claimed that it was not possible to determine how the destination was afected until very close to departure. The industry therefore claimed that it was not possible to cancel a package without cancellation fee prior to 14 days before departure. Cancellations that were made earlier, was thus subject to to the companies' cancellation rules in accordance with the organiser’s ordinary terms and conditions. ARN states in one case that the advice from the Ministry of Foreign Afairs against travel to the northern parts of Italy per se was valid until further notice and thus included the destination at the time of the trip. However, it was, according to ARN, obvious that a travel advice from the Ministry of Foreign Afairs that is not limited in time, at some point will cease. It was therefore not considered reasonable that a consumer could cancel a package with a planned departure too far in advance without paying a cancellation fee. As in the event of a cancellation well in advance, it is not possible to say with any great degree of certainty that there will be a valid dissuasion at the time of departure. In the case, the traveler had canceled more than one month before the planned departure. According to ARN, it was too long before departure and the traveler had to pay a cancellation fee. ARN has not taken a position on exactly how long a time that would be considered reasonable, but the Swedish Consumer Agency has claimed that fourteen days is too short a time and that a reasonable time should at least be three weeks before departure.

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