80 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE the law, an undertaking that sells only a single travel service cannot be qualified as an organiser or a retailer. Therefore, if we raise this error, this article should not apply to anyone, since logically no one can fit into this contradictory category (selling unique services while at the same time selling a package). Nevertheless, even if the wording of the law is highly questionable, a judge would probably analyse the will of the legislator at the time of drafting the law. Moreover, the legislator’s intention is clearly to protect travellers even when they only purchase a single service from a travel “professional”. Should it be more accurate to use the term professional in the meaning of the law? A professional according to the law is: “any natural or legal person, whether public or private, who acts, including through another person acting in his or her name or on his or her behalf, for purposes which fall within the scope of his or her commercial, industrial, artisanal or liberal activity with regard to contracts covered by this law, whether acting as an organiser, retailer, professional facilitator of related travel services or provider of travel services”. As we can see, this is a very large notion which encompasses all actors in the travel industry, including mere service providers. Therefore, it does not seem to be the appropriate term neither. Indeed, it was certainly not the intent of the legislator to impose notably an insolvency insurance obligation to every service provider as a hotel or airline company. In view of the above, it seems necessary to apply these articles relating to the sale of single services to organisers and retailers, but who are acting in a particular context, namely the sale of a single service and not a package travel. It would have been wise for the legislator to clarify this in the definitions in order to avoid discussions that could arise from this confusion. It should also be noted that this possibility for Member States to apply the Directive also to sellers of single travel services undermines, in our view, the main aim of the Directive, namely maximum harmonisation between Member States. Indeed, this implies that there are ultimately quite large discrepancies between national laws. Imagine a retailer who sells unique travel service throughout Europe. Depending on the country in which he operates, he will have to comply with the law on package travel or not, with different terms and conditions if the national legislator decided to use the possibility left by the European legislator through Recital 21 of the Package Directive. This leads to exactly what the legislator wanted to avoid with this new Directive: unharmonised travel regulations.
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