Remarks by Commissioners Didier Reynders and Adina Vălean at the press conference on the Passenger Mobility package

Commissioner Reynders

Et maintenant je passe au paquet sur la mobilité adopté aujourd'hui par le Collège.  

Ma collègue Adina Valean vous détaillera les propositions relatives avec les droits des passagers et autres initiatives en matière de transport.

De mon côté, je suis heureux de vous présenter la proposition de révision de la Directive relative aux voyages à forfait. Un outil de la protection des consommateurs en lien avec le paquet mobilité.

Au sein de l'Union européenne, lorsque qu'un voyageur ou une voyageuse réserve au moins deux services de voyage différents – par exemple, un billet de train avec un hôtel – dans un même point de vente, que ce soit dans une agence de voyage ou via un tour opérateur en ligne, cette personne bénéficie d'une protection particulière en vertu des règles européennes.

Ces règles permettent d'annuler un voyage, que ce soit simplement parce qu'on a changé d'avis ou en raison de circonstances exceptionnelles, comme c'était le cas pendant la période de Covid-19, et vous donnent le droit à un remboursement endéans les 14 jours.

Par ailleurs, ces règles vous protègent également en cas de faillite de l'entreprise qui vous a vendu le voyage.

Depuis la première législation européenne en la matière et au cours des révisions successives, la Directive européenne sur les voyages à forfait a considérablement élevé le nouveau de protection des consommateurs et consommatrices lors de l'achat de ces services de voyage.

Nous le savons car nos études d'analyse nous l'ont démontré. Cependant, nous avons aussi remarqué que les crises récentes dans le secteur des voyages avaient aussi mis au défi cette législation sur les voyages à forfait.

Ces dernières années, nous avons vu se développer de nouveaux acteurs sur le marché du tourisme et voyage à forfait, de nouveaux intermédiaires, de nouvelles technologies… Mais surtout, nous avons connu des crises majeures dans le secteur du tourisme et celles-ci ont exposé les limites et faiblesses des règles actuelles.

Je pense par exemple à la faillite du tour opérateur Thomas Cook en 2019, ou bien évidemment, à la pandémie du COVID-19.

Lors de cette dernière crise, nous avons été nombreux à avoir été confrontés aux restrictions de voyages ou aux annulations en masse de vols et d'hôtels, et donc de la majorité des voyages à forfait.

En conséquence, les voyages couverts par la Directive européenne auraient dû être remboursés aux voyageurs et dans certains cas, ceux-ci auraient dû recevoir une compensation.

Cependant, en raison des problèmes de liquidités des organisateurs, de nombreux voyageurs n'ont jamais été remboursés de leurs acomptes pour les voyages annulés ou ne l'ont reçu que bien après les 14 jours requis par la directive.  

Ces incidents ont aussi mis en évidence des possibilités de simplification et de renforcement de la sécurité juridique pour permettre une protection plus efficace, même en période de crise dans le secteur. 

C'est avec cet objectif en tête que nous avons travaillé à la révision des règles.

En organisant une consultation très large des parties prenantes, et en tirant les leçons des crises passées, nous proposons aujourd'hui des règles plus résilientes pour la protection des consommateurs. Ces règles ont aussi pour objectif de donner de meilleures garanties aux entreprises du secteur des voyages à forfait, un secteur majoritairement composé de PMEs et de micro-entreprises.

So, what is in the new proposal?

First, we are proposing to strengthen the rights of travellers: Payments for packages at the time of booking (so called downpayments) will not be higher than 25% of the price of the package. However, we want this rule to be flexible. Package organisers will be able to ask for higher downpayments in certain cases. For instance, if the organiser has to pay to secure the seat in a flight or a hotel room and these costs represent more than 25% of the total price of the package, the organiser may ask for higher downpayments. And organisers may not ask for the remaining payment earlier than 28 days before the start of the package.

Second, when it comes to refunds, there is a chain of service providers, package organisers and travellers. Thanks to the new rules, the right to a refund within 14 days will be reinforced for travellers. This will be facilitated because package organisers, most of whom are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), will have the right to a refund from service providers, such as airlines, within 7 days. We need to keep in mind that package organisers are not always big companies or platforms, they can be the SME in your village. Their size does not always allow them to stand still in case of big crises. So, the fact that package organisers get their refund within one week, enables them to refund their clients within two weeks in total, without endangering their liquidity. This measure will thus help both package organisers and travellers. On this point, we have aligned the rules with the proposal on passenger rights that will be presented by Commissioner Valean. When the flight is cancelled, consumers will benefit from the same refund rights, no matter whether they bought single tickets to intermediaries or within a package.

Troisièmement, la proposition précise que les bons d'achat, autrement dit ‘les vouchers', et les droits de remboursement sont couverts par la protection contre l'insolvabilité. Cela signifie que si le remboursement est retardé, ou que si le voyageur accepte un bon d'achat, et que l'organisateur du voyage à forfait fait faillite avant qu'il n'ait pu utiliser son bon d'achat, l'argent du voyageur sera protégé. En outre, les voyageurs à qui on propose un bon d'achat recevront des informations claires sur leurs droits et la possibilité d'exiger un remboursement au lieu d'accepter le bon, ainsi que le droit à être remboursé lorsque le bon n'est pas utilisé à la fin de sa période de validité.

Forth, travellers will receive unambiguous information on whether a combination of travel services offered to them is a package, who is the liable for its performance as well as on their rights as package travellers. The set-up with the concepts of travel packages and linked travel arrangements will be clarified and simplified. If different travel services are purchased at the same point of sale and at the same time this will be a package. Where, for example, a traveller books and pays for a flight and then, within 24 hours, books a hotel on a different website, following the invitation from the airline to do so, then, this is a linked travel arrangement. And this type of product will continue to offer a specific protection to the traveller, namely that they can benefit from insolvency protection for the flight.

Enfin, la proposition apporte des clarifications lorsque des forfaits sont annulés en raison de circonstances dites inévitables et extraordinaires. Il peut s'agir, par exemple, d'une catastrophe naturelle, d'une crise sanitaire ou d'un conflit militaire. Par exemple, la proposition législative précise que les circonstances aussi bien dans le pays de destination que dans le pays de départ, sont prises en compte. Il pourrait s'agir, par exemples, de restrictions de voyage ou d'exigences de quarantaine, comme cela a été le cas lors de la pandémie. Les voyageurs auront donc le droit d'annuler leur forfait et obtenir un remboursement complet.

To sum up, all changes I have just listed will clarify and strengthen the rights of travellers because:

Travellers will be less exposed to risks, as advance payments to organisers will be limited.

Travellers will be better protected in case of insolvencies and larger crises.

And overall, travellers will be better informed on their rights, including on whom to contact if there are any problems.

The proposed new EU package travel rules will provide stronger and clearer rights for travellers, as well as clear rules for travel businesses.

I am hopeful that the Council and the European Parliament will support the necessary improvements and clarifications in the Package Travel Directive so that consumers will be able to benefit from them.

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Commissioner Vălean

Ladies and gentlemen,

Some 13 billion passengers travel by plane, train, bus or ferry in the EU every year. When they do so, they are protected by EU passenger rights legislation better than anywhere in the world.

But “better than anywhere” does not mean that we can't do even better. 

Today we present two proposals that will bring better enforcement and better protection overall for our passengers. Let me highlight some of the novelties we bring about.

In principle, things should be easy for passengers when they claim a reimbursement or a compensation. They must ask the transport operator for it and the transport operator should respond to the claim. If this doesn't happen, the passenger will seek help from a national consumer protection body. In some Member States these national protection bodies are very supportive and responsive. In others, they are not more than a functional email address, leaving passengers at a loss.

So we will require all EU countries to monitor pro-actively passenger rights - on a risk-based approach, based on audits, inspections, interviews, not only following complaints. And we make the public reporting of these findings an obligation. We also introduce the possibility for passengers to seek redress through an alternative dispute resolution body and we increase the powers of the Commission. For example, we can ask the member states to investigate cases of non-respect of the regulation and to take action when necessary.

Another change brought by today's proposals is the obligation for transport operators to establish service quality standards (on punctuality, cancellations, reimbursement assistance, etc.) and, very importantly, to publish reports on the compliance. This transparency exercise will allow passengers to understand exactly what kind of services they are buying and also will incentivise companies to raise the quality of their services.

Speaking of standards, we have all struggled at one point in time to figure out what size luggage we are allowed to carry onto a plane. The difficulty is that each airline has its own standard or even several  standards. The European Parliament recently called on us to do something about it. 

It is clear there is no immediate one-size-fits-all solution: there are different aircraft configurations. It's as simple as that. However, I am convinced that there is ample room for simplification if airlines and aircraft manufacturers actually sit down together to come up with more harmonised industry-led standards. This Regulation encourages them to work on this as part of their quality management systems.

Those travelling these past years are probably familiar with the many versions of the paperwork needed for a reimbursement. Today, we propose to simplify things from the outset by creating a unique European reimbursement form, available on multiple platforms, to be used by all transport companies.

We also want more information and assistance for passengers, often abandoned in the hands of a chat box ran by artificial intelligence. So we are asking transport operators to diversify their means of contact, keep the electronic correspondence for some time and inform the passengers through different means of their rights.

Another issue on which we act today is the ticket bookings through intermediaries. Sometimes the passenger does not know where to ask for reimbursement – to the intermediary or to the transport operator. Sometimes, the passenger is even charged for a reimbursement. Other times, the transport operator requires the passenger to go through supplementary identification steps after buying a ticket from an intermediary. Under our new proposals, the intermediary must inform the passenger upfront if it will be the one operating the reimbursement. If so, the transport operator will have 7 days to send the money to the intermediary and the intermediary another 7 days to send the money back to the passenger. And nobody can charge the passenger for the process. The transport operators will get the data from the intermediaries and they will not be allowed to ask for further identification procedures.

Some intermediaries are under no contract or have no right to sell tickets for some transport operators and they use the email address of the passenger and pose as a passenger when booking a journey. In case of reimbursement, the transport operator simply reverses the payment in the account of the initial payer, which is the intermediary and that reimbursement sometimes never goes to the passenger. Under the new regulation, this practice, of posing like a passenger, is forbidden.

In addition to reinforcing the existing passenger rights framework, we are creating new rights and protections for passengers who combine different modes in one journey: train-plane for example.

As a base rule, the passenger can't be discriminated against on grounds of nationality. In practice, a Belgian and a German, let's say, must pay the same price for the same transport service.

Many multimodal journeys are also bought through intermediaries. Some journeys are bundled under the same contract. In such cases, passengers will be able to benefit from the full range of protections in case of disruptions, including the right to re-routing, continuation or reimbursement in case of a missed connection.

But some journeys are sold on-line as if they are a single contract, when in fact, they are just separate tickets. We therefore require intermediaries and carriers to inform the passenger in advance what kind of services is he buying and what kind of protection is he getting.

Finally, the new proposals give special attention to passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility. For them, we are now establishing a dedicated single contact point in all major multimodal transport hubs (meaning in all cities over 100.000 people, plus regional cities of importance even with a smaller population) to assist these passengers from the gate where they land, to the bus, train or ferry. This will enormously simplify the current situation, in which they have to contact an array of transport operators.  

We also put an obligation for assistance and compensation in case of damage of mobility equipment, injury to assistance dogs etc.

Another important provision is on the accompanied travel. The transport operators have the power to require that a person with disabilities or reduced mobility be accompanied for safety reasons. At  the moment, when it comes to air travel, this companion is paying for his or her own ticket, but we correct this injustice, by imposing a free-of-charge ticket for the accompanying person. Surprisingly enough, we have cases in which the transport company does not offer a nearby seat for the companion, so we had to put this as an obligation in the legal text.

I will stop here and I will be happy to take your questions.