Why is there a Separation between Distance Selling in EU Law and the Tourism Industry?

Abstract

Twelve years have passed since the partial exclusion of most tourist services from the Distance Selling Directive (art. 3 para. 2). The application of a particular right of withdrawal to contracts negotiated away from business premises for the provision of these services was considered inappropriate. Out of this consumer protection will be rather weaker than in other distance contracts. Additional information cannot be required from the service provider and rash decisions resulting from an informational disadvantage, i.e., a lack of personal contact, cannot be rectified by terminating the contract. These difficulties can only be partially resolved by referring to other regulations, such as national norms implementing the E-Commerce Directive (arts. 5 to 11) or the new Timeshare Directive (arts. 4 and 5), among others. Recently, the proposal for a Directive on consumer rights of 8 October 2008 maintains the same approach (art. 20 para. 3, art. 3 para 3) and the Draft Common Frame of Reference also coincides to some extent with the exclusion of some tourist services from distance selling protection. The aim of this paper is to review this exclusion by means of examining the dynamics of tourism services.