BEUC NEWS - 16.02.2022

Recent events have rocked consumers’ confidence in the tourism industry. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Thomas Cook bankruptcy in 2019 saw many travel plans cancelled and left thousands of consumers struggling to get their money back.

Important consumer rights to help consumers in exactly these kinds of scenarios were set out in the EU’s Package Travel Directive (PTD). The PTD gave consumers the right to a refund if their travel plans were cancelled, for example, or protection if their tour organiser went bankrupt.

However, just three years later, significant shortcomings in the PTD have become apparent. One of the major ones has been enforcement. The wording of the PTD is vague and insufficient on enforcement, which has led to a fragmented landscape in the EU. 

This created confusion during the first waves of COVID-19 and meant consumers were left out of pocket due to dubious practices by tour operators. Consumers also suffered significant harm by unlawful legislation in 15 EU countries that introduced rules allowing traders to postpone refunds or impose vouchers on consumers, many of whom are still waiting for a cash reimbursement to this day.

In a new position paper, BEUC tackles the issue of enforcement and makes a series of recommendations on how to ensure consumers are not left in the dark when the next crisis hits the travel industry. One of those is urging a re-think of the industry’s broken ‘full pre-payment’ model to limit consumers’ exposure to risk. We also call for a review and clarification of tour operator insolvency rules to ensure consumers are correctly protected if their holiday company goes bankrupt.

With thousands of consumers across Europe still struggling to get refunded for their 2020 holidays, and plans underway by the European Commission to review the PTD in 2022 as part of its broader ‘New Consumer Agenda’ initiative, now is the perfect time to make the PTD fit-for-purpose in the post-pandemic world. Consumers’ confidence in the travel industry depends on it. 

• Read more – How a revised Package Travel Directive can regain consumers’ confidence in the tourism industry [position paper]:
• Read more – How a revised Package Travel Directive can regain consumers’ confidence in the tourism industry [factsheet]:
• Related reading – Air passenger rights for the post-pandemic age [factsheet]: