Tourism Law in Europe

17 package travel. Among other things, the scope of application of the new rules has been widened, and new cases of package travel and linked travel arrangements have been identified, accordingly:  more stringent information obligations, with the burden of proof of proper fulfilment borne by the professional;  more rights in the event of withdrawal;  specific protection in the event of lack of conformity of the service;  stricter rules for the organiser’s liability;  specific rules on the professional’s liability in case of booking error;  the possibility to contact the organiser through the seller and more extended limitation periods;  the extension of the obligations to assist the traveller’s return in case of need;  the non-derogation of the rules relating to the rights of the traveller and unavailability of those rights by the owners;  sounder protection in case of insolvency or bankruptcy – also extended to linked tourist services; and  administrative protection in case of breach of the law by the organiser or the seller. The regulation of travel brokering contracts and the sellers liability (artt. 50-51- quater TC) is one of the most original features of the new rules on package travel. National lawmakers have acted within the strict limits enacted by the Directive, making full use of the margins allowed by article 13(1)(2), where it provides that “Member States may maintain or introduce into their national law provisions whereby the seller is also held liable for the performance of the package”. Consistent with the domestic legal tradition, article 50 TC identifies the relationship between the traveller and the seller as an autonomous “intermediate travel contract”, formally separate from the “package travel contract”, keeping the organiser’s and seller’s positions separate and regulating obligations and responsibilities differently. With a particularly innovative provision, it also provides a specific legal framework for such a case, qualifying an intermediate travel contract as a special subtype of the mandate contract under article 1703 of the Italian Civil Code.