Revision of the Package Holidays Directive: What’s changing
Directive (EU) 2026/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2026 amending Directive (EU) 2015/2302 has clarified and supplemented the framework already established for the protection of consumers in relation to package holidays. While these “all-inclusive” packages are particularly attractive, their complexity, and recent crises (the collapse of major operators and the COVID-19 pandemic), have highlighted difficulties in the application of the existing framework, thereby making its revision necessary.
Directive (EU) 2026/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2026 (the 2026 Directive) amending Directive (EU) 2015/2302 (the 2015 Directive) to make the protection of travellers more effective and to simplify and clarify certain aspects of the 2015 Directive, entered into force on 28 May 2026. Member States have 28 months from that date to transpose the new rules into their national law (notably into the French Tourism Code).
The stated aim of the 2026 Directive is threefold: to strengthen passenger protection, to adapt the legal framework to developments in the digital market and to draw lessons from the challenges encountered during mass cancellations, whilst maintaining a workable system for industry stakeholders.
The revised text does not fundamentally alter the approach of the 2015 Directive but makes targeted adjustments. It primarily addresses the shortcomings observed during recent crises affecting the tourism and travel sector, notably delays in refunds, blockages in financial flows between operators, gaps in insolvency guarantee mechanisms, and the unregulated use of travel vouchers. It also clarifies certain conceptual and regulatory uncertainties created by the previous text.
Key developments
Extension of the concept of a “package”
The 2015 Directive allowed several services to be combined via “linked travel arrangements” without triggering the protective regime applicable to packages, which created difficulties in classification.
In Recital (5), the 2026 Directive notes that “that additional complexity has given rise to legal uncertainty in the delimitation between packages and linked travel arrangements, as well as between linked travel arrangements and stand-alone travel services“.
The 2026 Directive thus removes the category of linked travel arrangements and broadens the criteria for classifying a package. Henceforth, travel services purchased from separate traders via linked online booking procedures will be considered a package (provided that the conditions relating to the nature of the travel services are met) where the traveller’s personal data is transferred from one trader to another and all contracts are concluded within 24 hours (Article 3(2)(2)(b)(v) of the 2026 Directive). The following shall also fall within the scope of the package holidays regime: combined services arranged after the conclusion of a contract under which a professional allows the traveller to select from a range of different types of travel services.
Furthermore, the text provides for strengthened pre-contractual information requirements in circumstances where, during the purchase process, a trader offers the traveller the option to add an additional service for the same trip, without the combination amounting to a package. The traveller must be informed in a clear, comprehensible and tangible manner that this combination does not benefit from the protection afforded to package holidays.
Failing this, such protection will automatically apply, and the trader will be deemed to be the organiser and will assume all the responsibilities arising therefrom.
In practice, more packages booked online will therefore fall within the scope of the package travel regime.
Vouchers
The 2026 Directive sets out the framework for the use of vouchers as an alternative to a refund. The organiser may only offer a voucher with the traveller’s explicit consent, and the voucher must be for a value at least equal to the amount of the refund due.
The text specifies the information that must be provided to the traveller and appear on the voucher: the optional nature of the voucher, the amount of the refund entitlement, the conditions and timeframe for reimbursement, the possibility of using the voucher for any travel service offered by the organiser, including in instalments, non-discrimination against voucher holders, free transferability (once), maximum validity period of 12 months, as well as an automatic refund of any unused amount within 14 days following expiry.
Cancellation without charges
The 2015 Directive limited the traveller’s right to cancel without incurring costs to exceptional and unavoidable circumstances occurring at the destination or in its immediate vicinity. The revised text extends this scope to include events affecting the place of departure, as well as those affecting the traveller’s journey to or from the destination.
Furthermore, cancellation is no longer conditional upon the event occurring. It is now sufficient (subject to proof) that it may “reasonably be expected that the performance of the package travel contract will be significantly affected by unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances […] or affecting the traveller’s journey to or from that place of destination“. Official alerts and warnings may constitute relevant indicators, with the assessment being made on a case-by-case basis.
Time limits
The traveller’s right to a “full refund of any payments made for the package” within 14 days is reaffirmed. The refund must be made without the need for a prior request, and where the original payment means are no longer valid, the timeframe begins to run from the date on which the new details are provided.
The main change concerns “upstream” refunds. The text now requires the travel service provider (e.g. the carrier) who cancels or fails to provide a service included in a package to reimburse the organiser within 7 days, starting from the day following the cancellation of the service or the day on which the service should have been provided (whichever is the earlier). This obligation is intended to enable the organiser to effectively meet the reimbursement deadline imposed on them.
The 2026 Directive also establishes a complaints-handling mechanism, with an obligation to acknowledge receipt within 7 days and to provide a reasoned response within 60 days of the complaint.
Insolvency protection
The insolvency protection now covers refunds due where the package is not performed in whole or in part due to the organiser’s insolvency, as well as situations in which the traveller is entitled to a refund or has accepted a travel voucher. In the latter case, the 2026 Directive specifies that the protection is limited to the amount of the refund to which the traveller would have been entitled.
Refunds must be made within a maximum of 6 months, a period extendable to 9 months in exceptional circumstances.
Furthermore, travellers must be informed without undue delay, through appropriate communication channels, in particular of the organiser’s insolvency, the entity responsible for protection, their rights, and the steps and documents required to obtain a refund.
Impact on operators
For travel organisers, these changes require adjustments to online sales processes, greater vigilance regarding the legal classification of offers, and a review of contracts with service providers to ensure that refund deadlines are aligned.
The text focuses on two key areas: the speed and efficiency of refund processes, on the one hand, and the solvency of organisers in situations of maximum exposure, on the other. This approach inevitably shifts the pressure further up the chain, particularly for service providers.
For service providers, including carriers, the obligation to reimburse the organiser within seven days will require significant contractual and operational adjustments, as well as appropriate communication with organisers during disruptions.
This revised regime therefore requires transport operators to review their B2B contracts with organisers (deadlines, reimbursement terms, force majeure clauses, etc.), ensure close alignment between terms and conditions, distribution policies and digital pathways and, finally, the anticipation of funding constraints in the event of mass cancellations.
In any event, it will be necessary to consider any adjustments that may be made when this revision is transposed into national law.
