The vote was meant as a protest against the fact that EU-Council and Commission are still refusing to grant the Parliament any right of codetermination in security issues. A similiar data transfer agreement with the U.S. has been challenged by the Parliament before the European Court of Justice.The judgement is ...

No tour operator liability for an accident of a two year old boy who slipped through the banisters of the hotel stairs: in a recent decision Austria's Supreme Court confirmed judgements of lower instance courts who both had dismissed a claim for compensation for pain and suffering based on the ...

A recently published survey carried out by the EU Commission showed that almost four out of ten citizens are not aware that they conclude a conctract with a transport company when purchasing a ticket and a majority doesn't know about the rights and obligations contained in such contract. The most ...

IATA has chosen Brisbane Airport as world's best airport and bestowed the "Eagle Award". The airport is expecting 15 million passengers this year.

According to documents recently released, some visitors to the U.S. were delayed by immigration officers because the fingerprints in their passports were mismatched or smudged. However, Homeland Security Department pointed out that only a tiny fraction of visitors was affected by such problems.

Liability for an accident at a water slide was repudiated by Austria's Supreme Court (OGH): a swimming baths offering a water slide was not obliged to provide permanent supervision by its staff or video cameras. A stoplight system regulating access to the slide and sliding instructions displayed directly at the ...

A German company has developed a system to forewarn tourists against seaquakes via text message to their cell phones. The system is based on data provided by international seismological institutes.

From 26. June 2005 all foreign travellers to USA who don't need visa must produce machine-readable passports, otherwise they may be rejected by immigration officers.

Interpreting Art. 3(2) of the European Directive 97/7/EC on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts, European Court of Justice in a recent preliminary judgement (easyCar UK Ltd v. Office of Fair Trading) held that the exemption made in regard to "provison of transport services" includes contracts for ...

Since last week, is On-line "Lex Turistica" http://lexturistica.blogspot.com/ a Travel and Tourism Law Blog built by Portuguese Speaking Professors, from both Portugal and Brazil As far as we know it's the first Travel and Tourism Law Blog ever. All contributions are welcome!

Next April 7th. will take place in Buenos Aires the first meeting to establish IFTTA Argentina, a regional organization. In these meeting it will be elected the Board of Directors and will considerate the IFTTA ARGENTINA BY-LAWS accord the IFTTA BY-LAWS original. After these date we will give you the ...

By the end of March 2005 Lufthansa will indroduce new check-in machines which will allow to scan passengers' passports. Due to legal obligations the Airline has to collect passengers' passport data for each flight to USA, Canada, Korea or Mexico. Up to now these data have beeen collected manually. The ...

Due to figures published by WTO this February, Central American states have achived an remarkable increase of Tourism. Espescially Panama substantially invested in touristic infrastructure and advertisment for its historical sites, beaches and national parks. Thus in 2004 number of tourists increased by about 20%.

"No compensation will be granted if tickets were stolen or lost ." Such provision used in the general condiditons of contract of a German coach tour company was held ineffective by Germany's Supreme Court: the provision was inappropriate as it would frustrate purpose of contract when ticket got lost, even ...

There is an incresing number of Spanish cases in which restaurants are found liable by the Courts because of serving unsafe food. When a person becomes ill after ingesting contaminated food, he/she can be compensated for the damage. In some cases victims also receive a compensation for mental distress, particularly ...

Austrian Federal Railways have introduced a new compensation scheme for railway delays. According to this scheme any delay exceeding 1 hour will entitle passengers to a refund of 20% of the payed fare. If the delay should lead into arrival after midnight, passengers can also claim for refund of taxi ...

Since 5 March 2003, an agreement between the European Commission and United States Customs gives the USA online access to passenger name record (PNR) data of all Europe-based airline carriers for flights that go to, from or through the USA. European privacy protection groups are deeply concerned as airline companies ...

Since the beginning of March 2003 US immigration authorities are checking all tourists for radioactive material as there is increasing concern of new terrorist activities.

Austria's Administrative Court recently came up with a principle decision regarding freedom to provide services of couriers, escorting travel groups from other EU-countries. Administrative Court held, that such couriers are free to show and explain any national sights to their group, with the only reservation made in regard to museums ...

The Governing Council of Unidroit at its 80th Session has approved the issue of hotel contracts being put on its reserve list with a view to future work on it if resources are available. It now appears on the reserve list for the Unidroit Work Programme for 2002-2004.

The WTTC released a series of reports on 8.11.02 predicting a strong forecast for the last quarter of 2002 and strong growth in 2003. “The relative strength in consumer spending in many countries compared with expectations earlier in the year has helped maintain personal Travel and Tourism spending”. Despite the ...

UK families have treated, with some scepticism, claims by US lawyers that they have negotiated a new settlement for families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. The settlements are said to amount to £6.4m (€10.08m or $10.12m) per family. However, there have been previous claims of settlement but these ...

Abdelbaset Megrahi has lodged an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights alleging breaches of his human rights in his trial by the Scottish High Court of Justiciary and in his imprisonment in Glasgow.

In R v Vincent [2001] CA, V stayed for a week at one hotel and shortly afterwards he stayed for a month at another. In both cases he left without paying his bills. He told the court that he had told the owners of both hotels that he was waiting ...

The Commission has approved a Finnish scheme providing a subsidy to passenger vessels. This permits a 97% reduction of withholding tax on the marine work income of European seafarers working on board Finnish passenger vessels. This allows Finland to align with similar measure in neighbouring countries.

The EU Commission has approved an UK Scheme which compensates airlines for the costs incurred 11-15th September after the attacks in New York and Washington. Those are for costs occured as a result of flights cancelled or delayed by national authorities. The scheme applies to all UK airlines and is ...

Loyola de Palacio, the EU Transport Commissioner, has put forward proposals to the Commission to hit state-aided airlines flying into the EU with penalties, including duties and landing right restrictions. Although it is stressed that this is not aimed at a particular country, it is viewed by some observers as ...

Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan man found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing, has lost his appeal against conviction. The High Court of Justiciary jailed him for life in January 2001 for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988. 270 people were killed, including all ...

Mike Watson, the Tourism Minister, has unveiled "The Tourism Framework for Action" in Oban, which aims to make Scotland a world-class tourism destination. The document is the outcome of a 5-month consultation excercise following the decline in tourist arrivals. Scotland lost £500m ($800m) last year, exacerbated by the aftermath of ...

Lufthansa has suffered a pre-tax loss of 745m euros ($660m). Its operating profits plummeted from 1bn euros to 20m euros. It has announced that it will not be paying shareholders a dividend. The results follow the aftermath of September 11th, the economic downturn and a series of pilot strikes.