1

Must Article 12 of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 (1) on package travel and linked travel arrangements be interpreted as obliging the organiser of package travel, in the event of termination of the contract, to refund in cash the full amount of any payments made for the package, or as authorising an equivalent refund, in particular in the form of a credit note for an amount equal to the amount of any payments made?

2

If it is the case that those refunds refer to a cash refund, are the health crisis related to the COVID-19 epidemic and its effects on travel operators, which have suffered as a result of that crisis a fall in their turnover estimated at between 50 and 80 % and represent more than 7 % of France’s gross domestic product and, in the case of package tour operators, have 30 000 employees in France and a turnover of nearly EUR 11 billion, capable of justifying and, if so, under what conditions and subject to what limitations, a temporary derogation from the obligation for the organiser to refund to the traveller the full amount of any payments made for the package within a period of 14 days following the termination of the contract, laid down in Article 12(4) of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on package travel and linked travel arrangements?

3

If the answer to the previous question is in the negative, is it possible, in the circumstances mentioned above, to adjust the temporal effects of a decision annulling national legislation which is contrary to Article 12(4) of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on package travel and linked travel arrangements?