23 January 2014 |
travelweekly.co.uk business Essential news, comment and analysis TOP STORY
TANZER COOL ON
PTD FEARS Tanzer: ‘A cooling-off
period [for consumers] is not practical in a world of dynamic pricing’
ABTA CHIEF UNFAZED BY PROPOSALS TO ADD AGENT LIABILITY
AND A COOLING-OFF PERIOD TO THE
PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE. IAN TAYLOR REPORTS
Abta has sought to play down fears that a new Package Travel Directive could incorporate damaging revisions, with chief executive Mark Tanzer telling Travel Weekly: “We are encouraged by the momentum.” Association chairman Noel Josephides told the Aito Agents’ domestic conference in early January that a previously touted proposal for a cooling-off period following a holiday purchase “has come back with a vengeance”. Josephides also warned a
proposal to make agents partially liable for packages would “take
88 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 23 January 2014
a lot of fighting” (Travel Weekly, January 16). The Abta chairman spoke out
following meetings of the Internal Market and Transport Committees of the European Parliament at which MEPs are considering revisions to the draft directive, published last July. Tanzer said: “Of course, it depends what comes out at the end. But nothing raised so far has surprised us. “There are issues around the liabilities of agents when they sell someone else’s package. Half of Europe has systems similar to
the UK’s where the agent has no liability. In others, including France, agents share liability [with tour operators] and want to keep that since it allows them to hang on to cashflow. “The current directive allows either and we would like that to continue.” He added: “The mood in Europe appears to be not to force it either way.” The proposal to introduce a cooling-off period came via the transport committee, which sought to include a similar right
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