Tui Travel to push for widening of package law scope

By Ian Taylor 

Tui Travel will lobby in Europe to have the proposed Package Travel Directive tightened and airline sales of holidays redefined as ‘customised packages’ rather than ‘assisted travel arrangements’.

If successful, Tui’s proposals would extend the liabilities of a package organiser to airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair.

Mike Bowers, Tui Travel UK’s general counsel, said: “We will say click-through sales are competing with our core offering and with dynamic packages, so should be treated as full packages.”

He said: “The EC is seeking, as far as it can, to capture all true holiday arrangements in an expanded definition of a package and has made a pretty good fist of it.

“The directive has been drafted with the intention of bringing in airline click-throughs, which fall within the definition of assisted travel arrangements where there is a transfer of booking data, but not personal data.

“We would like to see the same conditions apply to anything a customer thinks of as a holiday.”

Bowers added: “Anyone who cares about regulatory fairness, and fairness for the customer, should welcome the directive. It’s not perfect, but the European Commission has done a pretty decent job.”

He said: “Holidays need to be protected. You frequently have an intermediary who is not the end supplier, a service provided overseas and holidays purchased in advance.

"The market has changed since the 1990s, but for the customer these considerations are still relevant.”