116 LEGAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19 IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY However, where it is clear from all the circumstances of the case that the contract, in the absence of a choice of law, is manifestly more closely connected with a country other than that determined by conflict of laws rules of the Rome I Regulation, the law of that other country shall apply. It should be noted that, although contracts for the carriage of passengers are usually concluded in B2C relationships, neither the protective jurisdiction nor the choice of law rules concerning consumer contracts apply to transport contracts. This is mainly because most cross-border transport contracts, especially carriage by air, are international in nature. Moreover, international conventions exist as to the substantive rights and obligations, procedure and conflict of laws arising out of these contracts2. Thus, it is believed that applying protective conflict rules in transport contracts may conflict with the existing international conventions and cause difficulties3. Although very rarely used in practice, there is a mandatory provision in Slovenian law, dealing with the right of air passengers to withdraw from a transport contract in case of force majeure. According to Article 10 of the Obligations and Property Rights in Air Navigation Act (“Zakon o obligacijskih in stvarnopravnih razmerjih v letalstvu”), a passenger has the right to withdraw from an air transport contract in case of force majeure and shall be reimbursed for the ticket. A carrier is allowed to charge a cancellation fee, which should not exceed 5% of the ticket’s price. This rule is somewhat obsolete and was transposed into Slovenian law from the Yugoslav Obligations and Property Law Relations in the Air Navigation Act (“Zakon o obligacijskih in temeljnih materialnopravnih razmerjih v zračni plovbi”). From this, it follows that the carrier’s terms and conditions, which are not in line with this mandatory rule of the Slovenian law and do not provide for the reimbursement in coronavirus-related cancellations (“non-refundable” clauses being no exception) could be considered void if the Slovenian law applied to the contract. However, currently, there are no airline companies based in Slovenia, and, since the bankruptcy of Adria Airways, our national law has – to the best of my knowledge – not been chosen for any contract for the air carriage of passengers. Thus, the Slovenian law does not apply to contracts affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and, therefore, no case law in this regard can be expected. 2 A. Savin, J. Trzaskowski, Research Handbook on EU Internet Law, 2014, p. 263. 3 Ibidem.
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