LCan a customer who books a package trip (a package most often combining stay and transport) cancel it free of charge, claiming that, on the day of their departure, dangerous events will occur at their destination? Should the judge, seized in the event of a dispute, take into account the situation following termination? These are the questions posed by the following case.
In January 2020, a German, Mr. 1er March 2020, he terminated his contract, for fear of the health risks he could run there. Kiwi Tours makes him pay 307 euros in fees.
However, on March 26, 2020, eight days before the planned start of the trip, Japan closed its borders. Mr. The operator refuses it.
Mr.a directive 2015/2302 sfor package travel (article L 211-14 of the tourism code French). This text says that the traveler has the right to cancel without charge “if exceptional and unavoidable circumstances, occurring at the place of destination or in the immediate vicinity of it, have significant consequences on the execution of the package”.
The German courts contradict each other on its interpretation, the Federal Court asks the Court of Justice of the European Union to decide. She responds, on February 29 (2024, C-584/22), that the judge must not take into account events that appeared after the termination of the contract.
Travel advice
“It is a guarantee of legal security for the client and the professional,” comments Valérie Boned, president of the professional union Travel companies. If it were necessary to take into account the elements which arise between the termination and the planned start of the trip, it would be necessary, “in case of improvement”ask the consumer to pay the costs from which he was initially exempt.
On the other hand, specifies the Court, the judge must take into account the ” risk “ foreseeable, at the time of termination, and, to do this, place itself “from the perspective of an average, normally informed traveler”. From this point of view, its general counsel, Laila Medina, noted that on 1er March 2020“a trip to Japan already entailed serious risks”.
It also ruled in favor of the consumer in another case (VS‑414/22): in January 2020, an Austrian, Mr. Y, reserves with DocLX Travel Events, a festive trip to Croatia, from June 27 to July 3, 2020, for the sum of 787 euros. On March 13, 2020, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised to postpone or cancel all unnecessary travel. On April 21, 2020, DocLX offered Mr. Y to cancel, for a fee of 227.68 euros.
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