Department for Business and Trade (DBT)’s call for evidence on Package Travel Legislation: Updating the Framework - Which? response

Which? welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) call for evidence on Package Travel Legislation: Updating the Framework. This review of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 (PTRs) presents a good opportunity to enhance the current framework governing package holidays and strengthen its enforcement mechanisms. 

It is fundamental that the government ensures that any changes to these important protections build on their primary objective to provide a high level of consumer protection, and effectively safeguard and empower UK travellers. For these reasons, we urge the government to strengthen and underpin package travel rights for consumers with separate statutory measures rather than make deregulatory changes through the use of its powers under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act.

• The government must deliver adequate and effective public enforcement mechanisms for driving compliance with the PTRs, and strengthen the private enforcement framework with a reform of the Alternative Dispute Resolution system in this sector and the establishment of opt-out collective redress procedures.
• Given the focus of this call for evidence on the non-flight package sector, clarity is needed with regards to the government's plans to review the rules governing flight-inclusive packages and flight Linked Travel Arrangements (LTAs). In light of the overlap with the CAA’s ATOL reform, we urge the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Department for Transport (DfT) to work together on a comprehensive and coherent set of reforms for the flight-inclusive and non-flight inclusive package sectors.
• The introduction of exemptions for non-flight domestic packages and packages under a certain value would be financially damaging to UK consumers whose current protections would be significantly reduced. The government itself estimates that in the worst case scenario these proposals would respectively add £8m and £26m in annual costs to consumers. These exemptions to the rules governing the framework would dilute existing consumer rights and create more complexity, confusion and legal uncertainty for consumers, businesses and regulators.
• Linked travel arrangements should provide appropriate levels of consumer protection in the form of liability rules for the performance of the travel services and enhanced insolvency protection. This could be achieved by including these travel arrangements under the package rules, which would provide greater clarity to consumers and consistent application of the protections for those businesses that sell them.