Art. 7:503BW implementing art. 4 Sec. 6 of the Directive states that unless consumer cancels the trip due to his own fault he is entitled to have the price of the trip reimbursed. This right may not be dependent on whether the travel agency will get compensated for the cancellation of the trip by the Fund for Disasters. This would limit the consumer’s rights granted to him by the Directive. The question whether the consumer cancelled the trip for reasons not dependent on him needs to be answered in affirmative. As the advice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighted, the safety concerns in the regions where the trip was supposed to take place have significantly risen since the date of conclusion of the contract till the date of planned departure. Since in these regions also specific risk to health and safety of tourists was confirmed shortly before the planned departure date, the court decides that the cancellation of the contract by consumers was not due to their own fault. The fact that Kras claims that the trip for other travellers took place with only small changes in the schedule, does not influence this assessment. Since consumer cancelled the trip for reasons not dependent on him, he has a right to reimbursement of the trip price.
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