German Supreme Court: transfer of package booking can be made subject to payment of higher ticket price

According to Article 4 para 3 of the Package Travel Directive 1990/314, a consumer who is prevented from proceeding with the package may transfer his booking to another person who satisfies all the conditions applicable to the package but he remains jointly and severally liable to the organiser for the payment of the due balance and any additional costs arising from the transfer.In two judgements of today, the German Supreme Court has provided an important clarification: if the package includes air transport and the airline tariff does not allow any name change for the ticket the organiser may require payment of the additional costs for a new ticket even if these costs because of their high amount make the transfer economically inefficient. If the consumer in such case decides to abstain from the transfer of the booking because of the high costs involved and to rather cancel the booking, the organiser is entitled to charge cancellation fees.Source: BGH press release 170/2016 of Sep 27, 2016Case details: BGH judgements X ZR 107/15 and X ZR 141/15 of Sep. 27, 2016

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