Associated travel services
Associated travel services in travel law are travel services that a travel agent offers a traveler for the purpose of the same trip , without it being a package tour .
General
The travel service related ( english arrangement linked travel ) is a new legal concept , which the EU Package Travel Directive stems and was transferred to the German travel law on July 1, 2018th The legislature wanted to cover those transactions in which at least two different types of travel services are combined for the purpose of the same trip. The package tour is also a set of at least two different types of travel services for the purpose of the same trip ( Section 651a (2 ) BGB ).
Legal issues
The difference to the connected travel service is that a flat travel price has to be paid and the traveler only enters into a single legal relationship with the tour operator , even if several independent service providers such as airlines, hotels or rental car companies are involved. Associated travel services are not package tours; rather, as a newly introduced category, they are also granted basic protection. The traveler books individual components of the trip such as flight, hotel and rental car on the basis of separate, legally separate contracts. A separate selection and separate payment of the travel service may be made by the traveler (Art. 3 Par. 5 EU Package Travel Directive ). It is important that the travel agent can prove that the traveler receives the services separately and has undertaken to pay. Therefore, a separate confirmation and invoice should be created for each individual service.
In accordance with Section 651w of the German Civil Code, the associated travel service consists of at least two different types of travel services for the purpose of the same trip. This means that although the travel agency may have a uniform payment process , the individual service providers ( airline , hotel , rental car company ) issue separate invoices . As a result, the traveler enters into a legal relationship with each individual service provider. This is precisely not the case with package tours. If there are travel deficiencies , the warranty law of the BGB applies and not the more consumer-friendly travel law.
Legal consequences
The traveler is therefore entitled to subsequent performance ( Section 439 BGB), a right of withdrawal ( Section 440 BGB, Section 323 BGB, Section 326 (5) BGB), reduction ( Section 441 BGB), reimbursement of expenses ( Section 284 BGB) or compensation ( Section 437 BGB). He must try to enforce these rights with the service provider concerned.
However, associated travel services are granted basic statutory protection . According to Section 651w Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the German Civil Code, this basic protection consists of the travel agency's duty to provide information under Article 251 of the EGBGB as well as the security of down payments or advance payments by the traveler by means of a travel insurance certificate .
The traveler does not have to be a private person , because according to the regulations that have been in force since July 1, 2018, the entrepreneur is also included in the scope of travel law for business trips within the meaning of Section 14 BGB , unless he books 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.
The distinction made in the EU Directive between ad hoc package tours (point 4.2) and so-called connected travel services is not easy to understand at first glance. In stationary sales, both cases involve the conclusion of “separate contracts” with “different providers” with just one “single visit to the travel agency ”. The only difference is whether the customer only agrees to payment when the services have already been combined (i.e. he would like to purchase a complete package) or whether the travel services are selected and paid separately (i.e. the customer first decides for one service and acquires another service in the immediate temporal context). In practice, one can often only distinguish the two categories according to whether the provider has complied with the information requirements according to Article 19 of the EU Directive. If the travel agency does not meet these obligations, it is considered to be the organizer of a package tour.
In the future, organizers and agents will be obliged to inform the traveler whether they are purchasing a package tour or related travel services and to what extent the traveler is covered. To this end, the Directive in the appendix now contains forms that must be given to the passenger (Art. 2, last paragraph EU Directive 19 para.). Without these forms, the consumer would probably not be able to tell the difference between a package tour and related travel services.
Travel agencies that broker related travel services must provide security for the reimbursement of all payments they receive from travelers if one of the brokered services is not provided as a result of their insolvency . If such an entrepreneur is responsible for the transport of people (e.g. airline or coach company ), the security also extends to the repatriation of travelers (Article 19, Paragraph 1 of the EU Directive). However, these entrepreneurs are not liable for the contractual provision of the arranged travel services; here the respective service provider is liable for his own service (Art. 19 Paragraph 2 EU Directive).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Führich, Basic Knowledge of Travel Law: Outline of Package and Individual Travel Law , 2018, p. 130
- ↑ regulated in the EU Package Travel Directive
