The general terms and conditions of the travel agency may not require a specific form of withdrawal from the tour contract

The revision of the general terms and conditions of travel agencies is our daily bread. A typical mistake we find in the terms and conditions, which we try to talk travel agencies out of, is the requirement that the customer must follow a specific form in the event of withdrawal. We have already seen that the customer has to send the withdrawal in writing with a delivery note to the address of the office or, on the contrary, bring it in person to the office. In the case that we will inform you about, it was again an obligation to send the withdrawal to one specific email. All of the above is wrong and we can now rely on the new Supreme Court ruling to improve travel agents' practices.

The Supreme Court case involved a situation where a travel agent's customer had withdrawn from a tour contract to the United Arab Emirates. He did so on the day the tour was due to start because that was the day a state of emergency was declared and the then senior government officials advised against travel abroad. He sent the withdrawal to the email address odstoupeni@invia.cz,, even though the company's terms and conditions, to which the tour contract referred, stated that the client should send the withdrawal to odstoupeni@inviainternational.com. It was therefore sent to a different email address from that specified in the general terms and conditions and the tour operator refused to accept such a withdrawal. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court recalled that according to the provisions of the Civil Code on consumer protection, the withdrawal does not always have to be in writing and may be of a different nature. The law does not provide for any limitation on the means of communication. All that is required in order to preserve the time limit is that the withdrawal reaches the other party within the time limit, which means that the withdrawal has reached the travel agent. If the withdrawal is sent by email, it cannot be required that the withdrawal arrive within the travel agent's opening hours. Nor can any of the other restrictions described above be required. Restrictive provisions of the General Terms and Conditions are invalid and will not protect the travel agency in the event of a legal dispute.

Would you like to revise your general terms and conditions? Contact us.