Proposition 54K2653

Projet de loi relatif à la vente de voyages à forfait, de prestations de voyages liées et de services de voyage.

General information ¶

Submitted by

MR Swedish coalition

Submission date

Sept. 1, 2017

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

EC Directive consumer protection travel agency tourism

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP DéFI Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PVDA | PTB PP VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Sébastian Pirlot (PS | SP) abstained from voting.

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Discussion ¶

Nov. 9, 2017 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

The rapporteur is Ms Maya Detiège, referring to the written report.

Ms. Smaers has the word.

Mr. Speaker, we support this bill, which is primarily aimed at protecting consumers.

During the discussion in the committee, we drew attention to the fact that with this bill, which imposes additional obligations on both small self-employed travel agents and associations from the cultural or youth sectors, the aforementioned groups as well as consumers are well informed about the additional obligations. The Minister has promised to set up a working group that will provide some guidance and guidelines to support the implementation of the additional obligations from the draft law. We call for this to be done as much as possible.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, dear colleagues, the aim of this bill transposing a European directive is in particular to ensure better consumer protection by taking into account new trends, such as the growing number of travel bookings now online.

The bill introduces a detailed regulation for problems that may occur during the performance of one of the travel services included in package travel. From now on, in case of a price increase of more than 8%, the consumer will have the opportunity to terminate the contract. So far, the increase was expected to reach 10%.

The transposed Directive aims to ⁇ complete harmonisation and aims to stimulate a genuine European internal market for consumers by establishing a fair balance between the protection and competitiveness of travel companies.

We are ⁇ attentive to the updating of the legislative framework on consumer protection, which is why my group and I support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister absent, we will choose today to vote for this bill, as we did in the committee, for two reasons. On the one hand, it goes without saying that it was necessary to replace the law of 16 February 1994 which, in many aspects, was no longer adapted to the weather and, on the other hand, it is a fairly faithful transposition of a European directive which, on the other hand, did not leave us much discretion.

And, Mr. Speaker, it is in this regard that I would like to express some regrets, because if the aforementioned directive is undoubtedly an advance, it is far from perfect and will probably show its limits quite quickly.

Indeed, the distinction between linked travel services and package travel services seems to us rather unclear while the classification of a travel service in one of the two categories has very important implications in terms of consumer protection.

The situation is not ⁇ more comfortable for the service provider, for whom the lack of clarity can cause confusion as to the obligations to which it must submit. All this creates some legal uncertainty.

Furthermore, there is a risk that a number of service providers will adapt their business model in order to fall within the scope of related travel services, which would partially empty the legislation of its substance.

I therefore regret – and I address the minister – that a more in-depth reflection has not been carried out in the committee to mitigate these various problems. These are the two comments I would like to make to the Minister.