Changes to the Package Travel Directive proposed by the European Parliament could reduce financial protection for UK holidaymakers, according to a senior Thomas Cook figure.
Thomas Cook director of government and external affairs Andy Cooper, who has previously hailed European Commission proposals to revise the directive, told an Abta Travel Law Seminar in London:
“It is hard to see how a click-through arrangement could end up with any protection.”
Cooper said the European Parliament had “messed around” with the proposal for a new category of booking, the Assisted Travel Arrangement, which would cover click-through sales between linked travel websites.
He warned: “Customers could be no more protected [under the proposed PTD] and probably less.”
Cooper added: “There would be an incentive for customers to look and not book with a regulated business.”
On the scope of the PTD now proposed, he said: “You would have you thought the EC could come up with something that is simple and worked.
The Assisted Travel Arrangement is anything but and the European Parliament has made it worse.
“The issue is the scope. That is the fundamental issue and the European Parliament has made it fundamentally worse…in a way that puts more people outside the PTD.
MEPs voted on amendments to the PTD proposals before the Parliament broke up ahead of European elections later this month. The Council of Ministers has yet to produce its amendments to the proposals.
Cooper said: “We will end up with a compromise. But the danger is it will be a two-way compromise with the European Commission and with the Parliament.
“The [PTD] proposal is not disastrous, but it could become so.”
However, Abta head of public affairs Stephen D’Alfonso told the seminar: “It’s really too early in the process to judge what will come out. We are only about two-thirds of the way through.
“Normally the council of Ministers and Parliament will bat a proposal back and forth and we’ll get to that stage.”
Cooper argued the final PTD should be judged on four criteria: consistency, certainty, proportionality and transparency.
He said: “Those selling similar products should have the same obligations to consumers. The obligations should be clear and unambiguous.
“Businesses should not face undue burdens. [And] it should provide a clear view of what of protection exists for customers and competitors.”