General Conditions

INTRODUCTION. CONCEPT OF TOURIST PACKAGE

Given that:

a) Legislative Decree 111/95 (implementing Dir. 95/314/EC) states for consumer protection that the organizer and the seller of the tourist package to whom the consumer applies must possess the administrative authorization for the performance of their activities (art. 3/1 lett. a d.lgs. 111/95).

b) the consumer has the right to receive a copy of the tourist package sales contract (pursuant to art. 6 of Legislative Decree 111/95), which is an indispensable document to possibly access the Guarantee Fund referred to in art. 18 of these General Contract Conditions.

The concept of 'tourist package' (art.2/1 d.lgs. 111/95) is as follows: tourist packages have as their object trips, holidays, and 'all-inclusive' circuits, resulting from the pre-arranged combination of at least two of the elements indicated below, sold or offered for sale at a flat rate, and lasting more than 24 hours or extending for a period of time including at least one night:

a) transport; b) accommodation; c) tourist services not ancillary to transport or accommodation (...) that constitute a significant part of the 'tourist package'.

LEGISLATIVE SOURCES

The sale of a tourist package, whether it concerns services to be provided in the national territory or abroad, will be governed by Law 27/12/1977 n.1084 ratifying and executing the International Convention relating to the travel contract (CCV) signed in Brussels on 23.4.1970 as applicable, as well as by Legislative Decree 111/95.

MANDATORY INFORMATION - TECHNICAL SHEET

The organizer has the obligation to include a technical sheet in the catalog or in the out-of-catalog program. The mandatory elements to be included in the technical sheet of the catalog or the out-of-catalog program are:

details of the organizer's administrative authorization;
details of the civil liability insurance policy;
validity period of the catalog or out-of-catalog program or tailor-made trip;
methods and conditions of substitution (Art. 10 D. Lgs. 111/95);
reference exchange rate for currency adjustments, day, or value.

BOOKINGS

The booking request must be drafted on a specific contract form, electronic if applicable, filled in its entirety, and signed by the customer, who will receive a copy. The acceptance of bookings is considered perfected, resulting in the conclusion of the contract, only when the organizer sends relative confirmation, also via telematics system, to the customer at the selling travel agency.

PAYMENTS

The extent of the advance payment, up to a maximum of 25% of the price of the tourist package, to be paid at the time of booking or upon the binding request, and the date by which the balance must be made before departure, are stated in the catalog, brochure, or elsewhere.

Failure to pay the above sums on the established dates constitutes an express termination clause such as to determine its termination by right by the intermediary agency and/or the organizer.

PRICE

The price of the tourist package is determined in the contract, with reference to what is indicated in the catalog or out-of-catalog program and to any updates to the catalogs or out-of-catalog programs that may have subsequently occurred. It may be changed up to 20 days prior to departure and only as a consequence of variations in:

transport costs, including the cost of fuel;
fees and taxes on certain types of tourist services such as imposts, landing, disembarkation, or embarkation taxes in ports and airports;
exchange rates applied to the package in question.

For such variations, reference will be made to the exchange rates and costs indicated above in force on the date of publication of the program as reported in the technical sheet of the catalog or on the date reported in any updates mentioned above.

Fluctuations will affect the flat-rate price of the tourist package in the percentage expressly indicated in the technical sheet of the catalog or out-of-catalog program.

MODIFICATION OR CANCELLATION OF THE TOURIST PACKAGE BEFORE DEPARTURE

Before departure, the organizer or the seller who needs to significantly modify one or more elements of the contract will immediately notify the consumer in writing, indicating the type of modification and the resulting price variation.

If the consumer does not accept the modification proposal referred to in paragraph 1, the consumer may alternatively exercise the right to reacquire the sum already paid or to enjoy the offer of a substitute tourist package pursuant to the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of Article 8. The consumer can exercise the rights provided above even when the cancellation depends on the failure to reach the minimum number of participants provided for in the Catalog or in the Out-of-catalog program, or due to cases of force majeure and fortuitous events, relating to the purchased tourist package.

For cancellations other than those caused by force majeure, fortuitous events, and failure to reach the minimum number of participants, as well as for those other than the non-acceptance by the consumer of the alternative tourist package offered, the organizer who cancels (ex art. 1469 bis n. 5 Civil Code) will refund the consumer double what was paid by the same and collected by the organizer, through the travel agent.

The refunded amount will never be higher than double the amounts the consumer would be indebted for on the same date according to what is provided for by art. 8, 4th paragraph if it were the consumer who canceled.

WITHDRAWAL BY THE CONSUMER

The consumer may withdraw from the contract, without paying penalties, in the following hypotheses:

increase in the price referred to in the previous art. 6 exceeding 10%;
significant modification of one or more elements of the contract objectively configurable as fundamental for the purpose of enjoying the tourist package considered as a whole and proposed by the organizer after the conclusion of the contract itself but before departure and not accepted by the consumer.

In the above cases, the consumer alternately has the right:

to use an alternative tourist package, without a price supplement or with the restitution of the excess price, if the second tourist package has a lower value than the first;
to the restitution of only the part of the price already paid. This restitution must be made within seven working days from the receipt of the refund request.

For all changes relating to passenger names, travel tickets, as well as changes concerning cabin occupancy, TAOTICKET SRL reserves the right to invoice the customer for the expenses applied by the Shipping Company and/or Airline. Pursuant to Art. 32 of Legislative Decree n. 79 of 2011, please be advised that the right of withdrawal provided for by Articles 64 and following of Legislative Decree n. 206 of 2005 does not apply to this contract.

GENERAL CANCELLATION CONDITIONS

In case of Cancellation, the Cancellation Penalties foreseen for each specific Shipping Company and/or Airline will be applied.

All cancellation requests must be made in writing, via fax (010 - 5303728) or via email (annullamenti@taoticket.com) and must be signed by the buyer. The date on which the cancellation request is received by TAOTICKET SRL will be considered effective. Likewise, any modification request (passenger names, travel ticket, cabin occupants, etc.) will incur 100% of the scheduled penalty costs.

Article 8BIS: MODIFICATIONS BY THE CUSTOMER

For all modifications of the booking before the departure date by the Customer, a practical management fee of € 50.00 will be applied. These costs will be added to any costs invoiced by the Shipping Companies and/or airlines, of which the customer will be informed before executing the modification.

Warning: If the services include air transport, these expenses may correspond to the purchase price of a new round-trip ticket.

MODIFICATIONS AFTER DEPARTURE

If, after departure, the organizer finds it impossible to provide, for any reason other than a fact attributable to the consumer, an essential part of the services contemplated in the contract, the organizer must prepare alternative solutions, without price supplements charged to the contracting party and if the services provided are of a lower value than those foreseen, reimburse the difference.

If no alternative solution is possible, or if the solution prepared by the organizer is refused by the consumer for serious and justified reasons, the organizer will provide without price supplement an equivalent means of transport to the original one foreseen for the return to the place of departure or to the different agreed place, compatible with the availability of means and places, and will reimburse the difference between the cost of the scheduled services and that of the services performed up to the moment of the early return.

SUBSTITUTIONS

The renouncing customer can be replaced by another person provided that:

the organizer is informed in writing at least 4 working days before the date set for departure, contextually receiving communication about the transferee's generalities;
the substitute meets all the conditions for using the service (ex art. 10 d.lgs.111/95) and in particular the requirements relating to passport, visas, health certificates;
the substituting subject reimburses the organizer for all additional expenses incurred to proceed with the substitution to the extent that will be quantified before the transfer.

The transferor and the transferee are jointly liable for the payment of the balance of the price as well as the amounts referred to in letter c) of this article. Further modalities and conditions of substitution are indicated in the technical sheet.

OBLIGATIONS OF THE PARTICIPANTS

Participants must hold an individual passport or other valid document for all countries visited by the itinerary, as well as stay and transit visas and health certificates that may be required. They must also comply with the rules of normal prudence and diligence and the specific ones in force in the travel destination countries, all the information provided to them by the organizer, as well as the regulations and administrative or legislative provisions relating to the tourist package. Participants will be called to answer for all damages that the organizer may suffer due to their non-compliance with the obligations examined above.

The consumer is obliged to provide the organizer with all the documents, information, and elements in their possession useful for exercising the right of subrogation of the latter against third parties responsible for the damage and is liable to the organizer for any prejudice caused to the right of subrogation.

The consumer will also communicate in writing to the organizer, at the time of booking, the particular personal requests that may form the subject of specific agreements on travel arrangements, provided that implementation is possible.

HOTEL CLASSIFICATION

The official classification of hotel structures is provided in the catalog or in other informative material only on the basis of the express and formal indications of the competent authorities of the country in which the service is provided.

In the absence of official classifications recognized by the competent Public Authorities of the countries, even members of the EU to which the service refers, the organizer reserves the right to provide in the catalog or brochure its own description of the accommodation facility, such as to allow an evaluation and consequent acceptance of the same by the consumer.

LIABILITY REGIME

The organizer is liable for damages caused to the consumer due to total or partial non-fulfillment of the contractually owed services, whether they are performed by them personally or by third-party service providers, unless they prove that the event derived from an action of the consumer (including initiatives independently undertaken by the latter during the execution of tourist services) or from circumstances unrelated to the provision of the services foreseen in the contract, by fortuitous event, force majeure, or by circumstances that the organizer themselves could not, according to professional diligence, reasonably foresee or resolve.

The seller with whom the tourist package booking was made is in no case responsible for the obligations arising from the organization of the trip, but is exclusively responsible for the obligations arising from its quality as intermediary and anyway within the limits provided for this responsibility by the laws in force on the subject.

COMPENSATION LIMITS

Compensation for personal injury cannot in any case exceed the limits foreseen by international conventions to which Italy and the European Union are a party in reference to the services whose non-fulfillment determined the liability. In any case, the compensation limit cannot exceed the amount of 50,000 Germinal Gold Francs for personal injury, 2,000 Germinal Gold Francs for property damage, 5,000 Germinal Gold Francs for any other damage (art. 13 n° 2 CCV).

OBLIGATION OF ASSISTANCE

The organizer is required to provide the assistance measures to the consumer imposed by the criterion of professional diligence exclusively in reference to the obligations borne by them by law or contract.

The organizer and the seller are exonerated from their respective responsibilities (articles 13 and 14) when the failure or inexact execution of the contract is attributable to the consumer or depended on the fact of a third party of an unpredictable or inevitable nature, or by a fortuitous event or force majeure.

COMPLAINTS AND REPORTS

Any lack in the execution of the contract must be contested by the consumer without delay so that the organizer, its local representative, or the guide can promptly remedy it. The consumer must also - under penalty of forfeiture - file a complaint by sending a registered letter, with acknowledgment of receipt, to the organizer or seller, no later than ten working days from the date of return to the departure location.

INSURANCE AGAINST CANCELLATION AND REPATRIATION EXPENSES

If not expressly included in the price, it is possible, and indeed advisable, to stipulate special insurance policies at the time of booking at the offices of the organizer or the seller against expenses arising from the cancellation of the package, accidents, and baggage. It will also be possible to stipulate an assistance contract that covers repatriation expenses in case of accidents and illnesses.

A) REGULATORY PROVISIONS

A National Guarantee Fund is established at the Directorate General for Tourism of the Ministry of Productive Activities to which the consumer may apply (pursuant to art. 21 of Legislative Decree 111/95), in the event of insolvency or declared bankruptcy of the seller or the organizer, for the protection of the following needs:

refund of the price paid;
their repatriation in case of trips abroad.

The fund must also provide immediate economic availability in case of forced return of tourists from non-EU countries during emergencies attributable or not to the organizer's behavior.

The operating methods of the Fund are established by decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 23/07/99, n. 349 G.U. n. 249 of 12/10/1999 (pursuant to art. 21 n. 5 D. Lgs. 111/95).

GENERAL CONTRACT CONDITIONS FOR THE SALE OF INDIVIDUAL TOURIST SERVICES

A) REGULATORY PROVISIONS

Contracts having as their object the offer of the transport service alone, accommodation alone, or any other separate tourist service, not being able to be configured as a negotiating case of travel organization or tourist package, are governed by the following provisions of the CCV: art. 1, n.3 and n.6; arts. 17 to 23; arts. 24 to 31, concerning the provisions other than those relating to the organization contract as well as other agreements specifically referred to the sale of the single service object of the contract.

B) CONTRACT CONDITIONS

The following clauses of the general conditions of the tourist package sales contract shown above are also applicable to these contracts: art. 4 1st paragraph; art. 5; art. 7; art. 8; art. 9; art. 10 1st paragraph; art. 11; art. 15; art. 17. The application of these clauses absolutely does not determine the configuration of the relative contracts as a tourist package case.

The terminology of the aforementioned clauses relating to the tourist package contract (organizer, trip, etc.) should therefore be understood with reference to the corresponding figures of the sales contract for individual tourist services (seller, stay, etc.).