In a report published on Monday 14 December, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has exposed the lack of consideration given by some Member States to the European Commission’s multiple reminders about compliance with EU rules on package travel (see EUROPE 12520/15).
Indeed, the pandemic and the resulting widespread cancellations of travel bookings led to violations of consumer rights legislation, with some countries allowing tour operators to limit reimbursement for cancelled services to vouchers.
BEUC, which described the situation in almost 20 countries, reports, for example, that Slovakia and Bulgaria introduced their national measures violating EU legislation after the publication of recommendations on vouchers by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12486/7).
Moreover, despite the ongoing European infringement proceedings against them - which also concern Croatia and Lithuania (see EUROPE 12594/10) - these national measures are still in force, BEUC attests.
“To our knowledge, only one country, namely Spain, has fully withdrawn its illegal national emergency measures”, the organisation says in its report, adding that in some cases, Member States have simply slightly amended their legislation and ended their validity a little earlier than originally planned.
BEUC also reports that, according to information gleaned from its national partners, no country has used the flexibility offered by the EU’s State aid Temporary Framework to protect vouchers for standalone services cancelled due to the pandemic.
To view the full report: https://bit.ly/3nkNLh7 (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)