CJQue Choisir. EU finds Corona travel vouchers infringe package travel Directive.

As I predicted para 3.92 of the Handbook (3rd ed.), and here, the CJEU has now found that Member States cannot invoke force majeure to release, even
temporarily, package travel organisers from the reimbursement obligation laid down by Directive 2015/2302 on package travel, which provides for a full refund of those payments not later than 14 days after termination.

Judgments are those in Case C-540/21 EC v Slovakia, and C-407/21 Union fédérale des consommateurs – Que choisir (UFC – Que choisir).

The judgments only concern these measures when they engage the scope of application of the package travel Directive and as such they are an exercise in exhaustive harmonisation and EU statutory construction. Whether any such similar measures which are not covered by exhaustive EU law, may be considered lois de police under the Rome I Regulation, is an entirely different matter.

Geert.

EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, 3.92.