Law 95/2018, transposing Directive 2015/2302 (following on from the original Directive 90/314, deals with package tours and combined travel arrangements, including the cancellation and cancellation of such a tour before departure and when travelers are entitled to a refund upon cancellation.
In a recent case before the Supreme Court of Iceland (Hæstiréttur Íslands), it considered matters relating to a customer and his family that had booked a packaged trip to Italy from Keflavik Airport 🇮🇸 to Verona 🇮🇹 on an Icelandair flight, which included bus transfers into the Alps to ski 🎿 ⛷️, organised and purchased through a tour operator.
It was the customer who had cancelled the booking, and not the tour operator. Thus, the tour operator said the cancelled trip was the customer’s decision, and no refund would be given.
The Supreme Court held, inter alia, that at the time of the trip, it is evident that there involved an unforseeable significant risk to the skier’s health and the health of his family. It was immaterial what categorisation Icelandic authorities had assigned to the region. They thus upheld the underlying judgment, which adjudicated in favour of the skier.
The tour operator must refund the cost of the trip, plus interest and, plus legal costs arising from the litigation.
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Iceland in Case 4/2023 (and linked to other similar cases in Case 2/2023 and Case 3/2023) can be seen at the following link: https://lnkd.in/eNuAFD3Q
Graham Butler