Travel law

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The right to travel is an area of law that the totality of all legal norms including that deals with the rights and obligations of travelers , passenger transport companies , hotels and tour operators concerned.

General

The mass tourism requires comprehensive legislation from traveling to the benefit of the traveling consumer a uniform consumer protection manufacture, defines the rights and obligations of the parties and the division of responsibilities in occurring Travel defects and other travel-related damage determined. Since tourism often has international contact, the corresponding regulatory regime is strongly shaped by international codifications. They are therefore used for (package) trips

The relationship of application of the different regulations is arranged by international private law (IPR) according to conflict of laws .

Because of the ash cloud from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull , large parts of the airspace over Europe were closed to air traffic in March 2010 . As a result, tens of thousands of travelers "stranded" at airports or were unable to take their booked flights. This major loss , unique in the history of aviation - a case of force majeure - drew general interest to the subject of "travel law".

Individual codifications within travel law often only regulate very specific forms of travel. The new travel law based on the EU Package Travel Directive only applies to package tours ( day trips , connected travel services ) , for example .

German law

The most important basis of travel law is the travel contract . In terms of content, it is important to him whether it is an individual trip , package tour or connected travel services . The package travel contract is legally the most significant. Since July 1, 2018, the EU Package Travel Directive has therefore uniformly regulated the law of package travel and associated travel services in all EU member states , in Germany through § § 651a ff.BGB and § § 651w BGB. Essential contractual features are the travel contract- specific rights of termination and withdrawal , claims for damages , reduction in price and reimbursement of expenses by the traveler in the event of travel defects .

In the case of individually booked individual travel services such as transportation or hotel accommodation, only the law of obligations forms the legal framework. There is an even greater degree of freedom of contract for the legal relationship between the traveler and the travel provider . Of course, the BGB also realizes consumer protection at a certain level for individual trips by subjecting the mostly standardized transport and accommodation contracts to the general terms and conditions control . All trips that are not package tours are not subject to travel law in all EU member states, but to the warranty law of the respective type of contract ( service , rental or work contract ).

The traveler does not have to commence the respective trip as a private person in order to be included in the protection area of ​​travel regulations. The Air Passenger Rights Ordinance, for example, applies equally to private and business trips and always grants the person concerned as a natural person the respective claims in the event of flight irregularities . Even after the new regulations for package tours that came into force on July 1, 2018, these also apply to an entrepreneur within the meaning of Section 14 of the German Civil Code for business trips with associated services, unless they book via a framework contract. This means that “ incentive trips ” also fall under the new travel law, unless there is a previously concluded framework agreement between the tour operator and the entrepreneur.

International

Austria has implemented the EU Package Travel Directive through the Package Travel Act (PSG). The regulations correspond roughly to the German ones. The various provisions of the General Civil Code (ABGB) apply on a subsidiary basis (e.g. § § 922 ff. ABGB). It should be noted that the Austrian legislature uses a different term in the public law norms ("package tour") than in the civil law ones ("travel event"). In addition, the ARB 1992 (in the 2001 version) regulate the conditions between customers and travel agencies - tour operators in accordance with Section 9 of the Exercise Ordinance . In Austria, the so-called Frankfurt table and, in some cases, the Vienna list also play a role in travel law and the handling of complaints .

A travel contract in Switzerland can be either a travel agency contract or a travel agency contract. The latter is either an Innominat contract or a package tour contract . The package travel contract is a nomination contract , which is regulated outside of the Code of Obligations in the Federal Act on Package Travel of June 18, 1993 (PRG). It imposes comprehensive information obligations on the tour operator (Art. 4, 5 PRG), prescribes the content of the travel contract in a binding manner in Art. 6 PRG, deals with significant changes to the contract (including price increases of more than 10%; Art. 8 PRG) or regulates the rights of the traveler who is referred to as the consumer (Art. 10 PRG). In the event that the minimum number of participants is not reached and in the event of force majeure, the consumer is not entitled to compensation for non-performance (Art. 11, Paragraph 2 PRG). Any travel defects must be reported immediately (Art. 12 PRG), the tour operator is liable for the proper performance of the contract (Art. 14 PRG), except in the event of force majeure (Art. 15 PRG).

In the Common Law of the travel contract ( English travel contract ) (for the sector of the package English package tour ) by Regulation 4 of the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 regulated (PTR). After that, the information in the are travel brochure according Reg.6 (1) PTR for implied (warranty English implied warranties ) of the travel contract, which the consumer (a procedure for misstatement English misrepresentation ) or Failure ( English breach of contract allows). Another liability of the tour operator arises also from the Code of Conduct ( English code of conduct ) that the association of British tour operators ABTA has negotiated.

Importance of European law

Codifications of the EU significantly shape the valid travel law in its member states: On the one hand, directives such as the Package Travel Directive indirectly specify standards that the legislators of the member states implement into national law. In Germany, for example, this happened most recently through the Third Act to Change Travel Law Regulations in 2017. On the other hand, some EU regulations directly standardize travel law requirements and thus convey legally enforceable rights and obligations for travelers. A prominent example of this is the Passenger Rights Ordinance, which grants passengers a number of claims against the operating airline in the event of flight irregularities .

See also

literature

EU

DE

AT

  • Peter Kolba / Mirjam Steurer, Practical Guide to Travel Law - EU Package Travel Directive | Package Travel Act | Passenger Rights Regulation | Montreal Convention , 2018, (264 pages) ISBN 978-3-7073-3676-4 .
  • Eike Lindinger, The new Package Travel Act - Practical Guide - Legal text with annotations , 2017, (166 pages) ISBN 978-3-214-13407-5 .
  • Eike Lindinger, Vienna List on Travel Price Reduction , 3rd edition, 2016, (344 pages) ISBN 978-3-214-03689-8 .
  • Christoph Kietaibl: Package Travel Law , in: wuv - facultas, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7089-0008-7 .
  • Eike Lindinger / Andrea Scheibenpflug, travel law process , in: MANZ, 2006, ISBN 978-3-214-03668-3 .
  • Andrea Michitsch: Reiserecht , in: nwv, 2004, ISBN 3-406-50593-7 .
  • Ingrid Bläumauer: Travel Law for Practice , 2nd edition, 2010, LexisNexis, ISBN 978-3-7007-2891-7 .
  • Wolfgang Graziani-Weiss: Travel law in Austria , Verlag Österreich, 1995, ISBN 3-7046-0759-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WORLD: Bardarbunga: When volcanic ash paralyzes flight space . In: THE WORLD . August 29, 2014 ( welt.de [accessed on August 28, 2018]).
  2. ↑ New travel law - more protection for "connected travel services" . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed on August 28, 2018]).
  3. ↑ n-tv NEWS: Who will get the compensation? Retrieved May 22, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Package Travel Act (PRG)
  5. ↑ reproduced in Elke Lindinger, Wiener Liste zur Reisepreismaben , 3rd edition, 2016, p. 106 ff .; updated annually in the "Zeitschrift für Verkehrsrecht"
  6. ^ Andreas Börger, Sanctions for the violation of pre-contractual information obligations , 2010, p. 139
  7. ↑ Third law amending travel regulations. Federal Law Gazette, 2017, accessed on April 28, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Dr. Philipp P. Roeckl: 8 rights in the event of flight delay: what passengers are entitled to. In: Qamqam's lawyer blog. Retrieved on May 22, 2019 (German).