Covid-19 Cancelation Updated

Government Gazette issue A’ 84/13.04.2020 page 1389
Tuesday, 13 April 2020

ACT OF LEGISLATIVE CONTENT

Measures to address the on-going consequences of the COVID-19 coronary pandemic and other urgent provisions.

Article 70: Arrangements in exemption of the law for the termination of contracts between tourism companies and their clients for providing tourism services.

1. This applies to tourism service contracts, individually or in the form of an organized trip (package), that have been concluded on the one hand between tourism companies (according to par. 1 of art. 1 of law 4276/2014(A’ 155)) and on the other hand clients, that are terminated from February 25th to and including September 20th, by any of the contracting parties involved.

2. For the purposes of implementing this act, “clients” means: a) consumers, b) individuals, including representatives of small companies or self-employed people, that have proceeded with reservations for travel pertaining to their business or professional identity, c) individuals or legal entities that are acting for business, commercial, craft or professional purposes conclude contracts with tourism companies to organize professional trips, including conferences and seminars, and d) individuals or legal entities, including schools, educational establishments and non-profit making that conclude contracts with tourism companies to organize trips offered occasionally on a non-profit basis to a limited amount of travelers and do not address to the general public. The clients of previous sub paragraph reside either within or outside the Greek Territory.

3. If, following a termination according to par. 1, the tourism company is required to refund the client with any amount the client has already paid as an advance payment, guarantee, deposit, partial of full repayment or any other form to execute the contract, the tourism company is entitled, by way of derogation from the applicable – if applicable – provisions of contract or law, to offer the client instead of a refund, a credit note of equal value, valid for eighteen (18) months from the date of its issuance.

4. The tourism company shall notify in writing on a durable medium the counterparty tourism enterprise of the offer of the credit note within thirty (30) days from the date of termination of the contract or, in case the contract has been terminated before the applicability of this, within thirty (30) days from the entry into force of this. In case the tourism company fails to notify in writing the client for the offer of credit note within the deadline of the previous paragraph, the tourism company is obliged to refund the client, according to par. 3, the amount due.

5. The credit note corresponds to the total amount to be refunded. The tourism company is obliged to offer the client the option of using the credit note for the same tourism service or a similar one to the one the terminated contract pertained to.

6. If the total value of the tourism service chosen by the client is less than the credit voucher’s value, the client is entitled to choose between receiving a new credit note for the amount corresponding to the difference in value with a duration agreed upon by the parties involved or get refunded the amount corresponding to the difference in value no later than the expiration date of the original credit note. If the total value of the tourism service chosen

1 The legislation enacted by the President of the Republic, following a proposal by the Council of Ministers, for the legislative settlement of an emergency extremely urgent and unpredictable.

by the client exceeds the value of the credit note, the difference shall be paid by the client to the tourism company.

7. If, for any reason, at the end of the expiry date of the original credit note, no new contract has been concluded to provide any tourism service, between the tourism company and the client, the tourism company is obliged to pay the client the amount of money equal to the credit voucher’s value.

8. Credit notes issued under the provisions of this Act of Legislative Content from tourism companies offering packages under the Presidential Decree 7/2018 (A’ 12) are protected against the tourism company’s insolvency, as specified in art. 16 of the Presidential Decree 7/2018.

9. The provisions hereof shall also be mandatory applicable to contracts in which the parties have concluded as applicable not only Greek but also foreign law, provided that the relevant rights are provided in EU law.

Article 71: Exceptional arrangements for the termination of contracts between tourism companies.

1. This is applicable to contracts concluded between the tourism companies of par. 1 of article 1 of law 4276/2014 (A 155) on the one hand and either the tourism companies of par. 1 of article 1 of law 4276/2014 or Foreign tourism companies, which are terminated from 25 February 2020 to 30 September 2020 by any Contracting Party.

2. If, following the termination under paragraph 1, one of the contracting tourism companies is obliged to return to the counterparty tourism company any amount paid by the latter as an advance payment, guarantee, deposit, partial or total repayment or in any other form, the debtor tourism company, by way of derogation from the applicable – if applicable – provisions of contract or law, may offer the counterparty tourism enterprise an equal credit note of eighteen (18) months from the date of its issuance, instead of the refund.

3. The debtor tourism company shall notify in writing on a durable medium the counterparty tourism enterprise of the offer of the credit note within thirty (30) days from the date of termination of the contract or, in case the contract has been terminated before the applicability of this, within thirty (30) days from the entry into force of this. In the event that the debtor tourism company does not notify in writing the counterparty tourism enterprise of the offer of the credit note within the deadline of the previous paragraph, the debtor tourism company should return to the counterparty tourism company the amount of money due, in accordance with sub-par. 2 of this.

4. At the date of the expiry of the validity of the credit notes, issued under paragraphs 2 and 3, no new contract has been concluded between the initially contracted tourism companies using the credit note, the debtor tourism company is obliged to pay to the lending tourism company financial amount equal to the value of the credit note.

5. The provisions hereof shall also be mandatory applicable to contracts in which the parties have concluded as applicable not only Greek but also foreign law, provided that the relevant rights are provided in EU law.