The most important Consumer protection matters dealt with by ECTAA concern:
Directive 90/314 of 13 June 1990 on package travel, package holidays and package tours
This Directive regulates the minimum pre-contractual information to provide to the consumer, the formal requirements for package travel contracts, the obligations of the organizer when failing to comply with its contractual obligations (cancellation, change in the services included in the contract, non-performance, civil liability, etc.) and the provision of a financial guarantee to cover the organizer's insolvency.
In various decisions, the Court of Justice of the European Communities ruled on the interpretation that should be given to some provisions of Directive 90/314, namely in respect of:
ECTAA recently submitted preliminary comments to the European Commission on the review of the acquis on consumer protection (see hereunder) and in particular of the Package Travel Directive.
[View position paper of ECTAA]
Directive 93/13 of 21 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts
This Directive aims at prohibiting unfair terms in consumer contracts when such terms have not been individually negotiated. A term is considered unfair when it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations arising under the contract. If a term is unfair, it will not be binding on the consumer.
At the invitation of the European Commission, ECTAA participated in a Round Table on Package Travel Contracts, in order to examine the application of Directive 93/13 in package travel contracts. The Round Table completed its work in February 2001, by adopting non binding final conclusions.
[ View conclusions of the Round Table ]
Directive 97/7 of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts
The Directive regulates distance contracts, i.e. contracts concerning goods or services, which are concluded between a supplier and a consumer by making exclusive use of a system of distance sales organized by the provider.
Tourist services are partly exempted from compliance with the Directive, given that it provides that its provisions on prior information and their written confirmation, on the right of withdrawal and on the minimum time-limit for performance of the contract, do not apply to contracts for the provision of accommodation, transport, catering or leisure services, where the supplier undertakes, when the contract is concluded, to provide these services on a specific date or within a specific period.
The Court of Justice of the European Communities recently ruled on the interpretation that should be given to the notion of “transport services”.
[ View EasyCar case ]
Directive 2005/29 of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the Internal Market
The Directive is applicable to both sellers of goods and providers of services. As a general principle, the Directive prohibits any kind of unfair commercial practice. A commercial practice will be unfair when it is contrary to the requirements of professional diligence and it materially distorts or is likely to materially distort the economic behavior of an average consumer.
More specifically, the Directive prohibits misleading actions and omissions of traders as well as aggressive commercial practices.
Green Paper on the Review of the Consumer Acquis Beginning of 2007, the European Commission published a Green Paper, which aimed at consulting interested parties on various possible options for the review of the Community acquis on consumer protection, which is composed of 8 Directives:
Interested parties had until 15 May 2007 to submit comments to the European Commission.