91998E4002

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4002/98

by Caroline Jackson (PPE) to the Commission

(5 January 1999)

Subject: The Package Travel Directive

Consumer complaints about package tour operators continue to increase, despite the existence of the Package Travel Directive 90/314/EEC(1). Particular concern has been expressed about what happens to package tour customers if their tour operator becomes insolvent and about the levying of surcharges on published prices.

Is the Commission satisfied that the Directive gives consumers adequate protection in the event of a tour organiser's insolvency, so that the organiser and/or retailer who is party to the contract are under an obligation to provide sufficient protection, in the event of insolvency, for the rapid reimbursement of all funds paid by the consumer?

Why has the Commission been prepared to accept that the United Kingdom has transposed Article 4 of the Directive, concerning the possibility of revising published prices, in a less rigorous and precise form than that set out in the actual text of the Directive?

Is the Commission preparing to come forward with amendments to the Directive in the light of these and other comments?

(1) OJ L 158, 23.6.1990, p. 59.