§ 11. What the package holiday contract or confirmation must contain
Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська
In brief
- The contract or confirmation must contain the pre-contractual information from § 9 and a number of additional points.
- The additional points include special requirements that have been accepted, the organiser's responsibility and duty to help, contact points and information about complaints.
- The right to transfer the contract to someone else must also be mentioned.
- Information material from the organiser counts as part of the contract, except for insignificant information.
The text of the law (unofficial translation)
§ 11. Information to be given in the package holiday contract or in the confirmation
- a statement of the traveller's (reisende) special requirements which the organiser (arrangør) has accepted
- the contact details of the Norwegian Travel Guarantee Fund (Reisegarantifondet)
- the name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and, where relevant, fax number of the organiser's local representative, of a contact point or of another service which enables the traveller to contact the organiser quickly and communicate with them efficiently, to request assistance if the traveller is in difficulty, or to complain about a defect (mangel) discovered during the performance of the package holiday (pakkereise)
- information that the traveller has a duty to inform, without undue delay, of any defect discovered during the performance of the package holiday
- information enabling direct contact with a minor or with a person responsible for the minor, when the minor is travelling without parents or another authorised person and the package holiday contract includes accommodation (innkvartering)
- information about internal complaint handling, about procedures for out-of-court complaint resolution (utenrettslig klagebehandling), about complaints bodies (klageorganer) to which the trader (næringsdrivende) is subject and about the online dispute resolution platform (den nettbaserte klageportalen) for cross-border complaint handling, cf. the Consumer Dispute Bodies Approval Act (godkjenningsloven) § 12 second paragraph.
- information about the traveller's right to transfer the contract to another traveller under § 18.
What does this mean?
This section sets out what the travel contract itself, or the confirmation you receive after the purchase, must contain. Everything that had to be provided in advance under § 9 must be repeated here. In addition, there are a number of points that only become relevant once the contract has been entered into.
The additional points include the special requirements you have asked for and that the organiser has agreed to. The contract must also state that the organiser is responsible for all travel services being delivered properly, and that the organiser must help travellers in difficulty. The duty to provide assistance (bistandsplikt) is set out in § 36. The organiser must promptly give appropriate assistance, for example information about health services, local authorities and consular help, and help with getting in touch with others and finding new travel services. If you caused the difficulties yourself, intentionally (forsettlig) or negligently (uaktsomt), the organiser can charge a reasonable fee (gebyr), never higher than its own actual costs.
The contract must also provide contact details. This applies to the Norwegian Travel Guarantee Fund and to a contact point or local representative you can reach quickly to ask for help or complain about defects during the trip. You must also be told that you yourself must report defects as soon as you discover them. If a minor is travelling without parents or another authorised person, and the trip includes overnight stays, the contract must contain information that makes it possible to reach the child or a responsible person directly.
The contract must also provide information about the options for complaints: the seller's own complaint handling, out-of-court complaint resolution, the complaints bodies the seller is affiliated with and the online dispute resolution platform. Here the law refers to the Consumer Dispute Bodies Approval Act § 12. It says that the complaints body must allow the consumer to complain both electronically and on paper, and that the body must, on request, help with writing the complaint. The body must also be able to receive complaints through the EU's online dispute resolution platform. Finally, the contract must provide information about the right to transfer the trip to someone else. Under § 18, the recipient must then meet the conditions of the contract, and the organiser must be given reasonable notice on a durable medium (varig medium). Notice given no later than seven days before departure is always regarded as reasonable.
The second paragraph makes information material part of the contract. This applies to material the organiser has produced itself or refers to. The exception is information that must be assumed to have been of no significance for your choice to book.
This section must be read together with the neighbouring sections. § 14 concerns linked bookings. § 16 and § 17 state that costs that have not been disclosed are not to be borne by the traveller, and that the burden of proof (bevisbyrde) lies with the trader. Sections § 12, § 14 and § 20 themselves refer back to this one.
- § 9Information you must receive before buying a package holiday
- § 36The organiser's duty to provide assistance
- § 18Transferring the package holiday to someone else
- § 10How the information before the package holiday must be given
- § 12Language, telephone offers and a copy of the package holiday contract