The review of the Package Travel Directive is a bit of a crusade for the European Commission, well, at least it seems as if from the moment the works on it began till its completion you could travel by foot from the UK or France to Palestine... The current rest-stop in this journey are the ongoing debates in the European Parliament. The Internal Market Committee approved new rules last week and a plenary vote is scheduled in March. Of course, the new Directive will still need to be approved by the Member States, which will only be able to take place after the elections in May.
Additionally to the rules described by us previously (Package travel 2.0) the MEPs lowered the Commission's threshold for when consumers should be given a choice to opt out from a contract when there is a price increase - from 10% to 8% price increase. More over, any price reduction of more than 3% will need to be passed to the customer, pursuant to the draft. Organisers will not be allowed to change flight times significantly once the sale has been conducted. In case of unforeseen circumstances preventing travellers from returning home on time, they would need to be provided accommodation or paid equivalent thereof for five nights (up to 125 EUR per night). Commission proposed only three nights accommodation at the maximum of 100 EUR per night. (MEPs vote to beef up consumer rights) Just like with the ongoing revision of air passengers rights it looks as if the MEPs are indeed trying to grant travellers with as much protection as they can only negotiate into the new provisions.
