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Before embarking on your travels, it is wise to have travel insurance in place. However, many individuals choose to travel without it. To address this issue, several tour operators and travel agencies either recommend that customers obtain insurance or make it a requirement within their terms and conditions or contracts. This raises an important question about how compatible these recommendations or obligations are with consumer protection laws.
What Is Impermissible When Offering Insurance
Any requirement obliging the customer to take out insurance with a specific insurer is considered wholly impermissible. Entering into such an arrangement exposes the tour operator to a fine imposed by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (ČOI).
It is also prohibited to pre-select insurance when purchasing a package tour. The Municipal Court in Prague has recently upheld a fine imposed by the ČOI in a case where insurance was pre-selected in the booking process, and the customer was unable to remove it. Although the case concerned a non-removable pre-selection, in our view, even a model whereby insurance is pre-selected but may be deselected (so-called opt-out) is not compliant with applicable law. Accordingly, where insurance is offered as part of the purchasing process, we recommend that it be left unselected by default (so-called opt-in).
Insurance as a Recommendation, Not an Obligation
Imposing a general obligation on the customer to independently arrange travel insurance may also fall on the borderline of compliance with consumer protection legislation. In our practice, we therefore prefer to replace such an obligation with a strong recommendation. In any event, whether framed as a recommendation or an obligation, such provisions primarily serve as a means of drawing attention to the risks associated with travel.
Statutory Duty to Inform About Insurance
The current legal framework also provides for an obligation to inform customers about insurance. Specifically, tour operators are required to provide the customer with “information on insurance covering the costs of termination of the contractual obligation by the customer or the costs of assistance, including repatriation, in the event of accident, illness, or death.” Customers must therefore, in all circumstances, receive at least some information regarding travel insurance from the tour operator.
Do you have any questions regarding travel insurance? Would you like to verify whether it is communicated correctly within your booking process? Or are you dealing with a dispute related to travel insurance? We have extensive experience in all of these areas, so please do not hesitate to contact us.
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Markéta Poledníková
Markéta Poledníková
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