LegalizeRegulation (EU) No 181/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 concerning the rights of passengers in bus and coach transport and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 Text with EEA relevance
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 91(1) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),
After consulting the Committee of the Regions,
Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, in the light of the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 24 January 2011 (2),
Whereas:
(1) Action by the Union in the field of bus and coach transport should aim, among other things, at ensuring a high level of protection for passengers, that is comparable with other modes of transport, wherever they travel. Moreover, full account should be taken of the requirements of consumer protection in general.
(2) Since the bus or coach passenger is the weaker party to the transport contract, all passengers should be granted a minimum level of protection.
(3) Union measures to improve passengers’ rights in the bus and coach transport sector should take account of the specific characteristics of this sector, which consists largely of small- and medium-sized undertakings.
(4) Passengers and, as a minimum, persons whom the passenger had, or would have had, a legal duty to maintain should enjoy adequate protection in the event of accidents arising out of the use of the bus or coach, taking into account Directive 2009/103/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 relating to insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles and the enforcement of the obligation to insure against such liability (3).
(5) In choosing the national law applicable to compensation for death, including reasonable funeral expenses, or personal injury as well as for loss of or damage to luggage due to accidents arising out of the use of the bus or coach, Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II) (4) and Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) (5) should be taken into account.
(6) Passengers should, in addition to compensation in accordance with applicable national law in the event of death or personal injury or loss of or damage to luggage due to accidents arising out of the use of the bus or coach, be entitled to assistance with regard to their immediate practical needs following an accident. Such assistance should include, where necessary, first aid, accommodation, food, clothes and transport.
(7) Bus and coach passenger services should benefit citizens in general. Consequently, disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility, whether caused by disability, age or any other factor, should have opportunities for using bus and coach services that are comparable to those of other citizens. Disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility have the same rights as all other citizens with regard to free movement, freedom of choice and non-discrimination.
(8) In the light of Article 9 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in order to give disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility opportunities for bus and coach travel comparable to those of other citizens, rules for non-discrimination and assistance during their journey should be established. Those persons should therefore be accepted for carriage and not refused transport on the grounds of their disability or reduced mobility, except for reasons which are justified on the grounds of safety or of the design of vehicles or infrastructure. Within the framework of relevant legislation for the protection of workers, disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility should enjoy the right to assistance at terminals and on board vehicles. In the interest of social inclusion, the persons concerned should receive the assistance free of charge. Carriers should establish access conditions, preferably using the European standardisation system.
(9) In deciding on the design of new terminals, and as part of major refurbishments, terminal managing bodies should endeavour to take into account the needs of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility, in accordance with ‘design for all’ requirements. In any case, terminal managing bodies should designate points where such persons can notify their arrival and need for assistance.
(10) Similarly, without prejudice to current or future legislation on technical requirements for buses and coaches, carriers should, where possible, take those needs into account when deciding on the equipment of new and newly refurbished vehicles.
(11) Member States should endeavour to improve existing infrastructure where this is necessary to enable carriers to ensure access for disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility as well as to provide appropriate assistance.
(12) In order to respond to the needs of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility, staff should be adequately trained. With a view to facilitating the mutual recognition of national qualifications of drivers, disability awareness training could be provided as a part of the initial qualification or periodic training as referred to in Directive 2003/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2003 on the initial qualification and periodic training of drivers of certain road vehicles for the carriage of goods or passengers (6). In order to ensure coherence between the introduction of the training requirements and the time-limits set out in that Directive, a possibility for exemption during a limited period of time should be allowed.
(13) Organisations representative of disabled persons or persons with reduced mobility should be consulted or involved in preparing the content of the disability-related training.
(14) Rights of bus and coach passengers should include the receipt of information regarding the service before and during the journey. All essential information provided to bus and coach passengers should also be provided, upon request, in alternative formats accessible to disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility, such as large print, plain language, Braille, electronic communications that can be accessed with adaptive technology, or audio tapes.
(15) This Regulation should not restrict the rights of carriers to seek compensation from any person, including third parties, in accordance with the applicable national law.
(16) Inconvenience experienced by passengers due to cancellation or significant delay of their journey should be reduced. To this end, passengers departing from terminals should be adequately looked after and informed in a way which is accessible to all passengers. Passengers should also be able to cancel their journey and have their tickets reimbursed or to continue their journey or to obtain re-routing under satisfactory conditions. If carriers fail to provide passengers with the necessary assistance, passengers should have the right to obtain financial compensation.
(17) With the involvement of stakeholders, professional associations and associations of customers, passengers, disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility, carriers should cooperate in order to adopt arrangements at national or European level. Such arrangements should aim at improving the information, care and assistance offered to passengers whenever their travel is interrupted, in particular in the event of long delays or cancellation of travel, with a particular focus on passengers with special needs due to disability, reduced mobility, illness, elderly age and pregnancy, and including accompanying passengers and passengers travelling with young children. National enforcement bodies should be informed of those arrangements.
(18) This Regulation should not affect the rights of passengers established by Council Directive 90/314/EEC of 13 June 1990 on package travel, package holidays and package tours (7). This Regulation should not apply in cases where a package tour is cancelled for reasons other than cancellation of the bus or coach transport service.
(19) Passengers should be fully informed of their rights under this Regulation, so that they can effectively exercise those rights.
(20) Passengers should be able to exercise their rights by means of appropriate complaint procedures implemented by carriers or, as the case may be, by submission of complaints to the body or bodies designated to that end by the relevant Member State.
(21) Member States should ensure compliance with this Regulation and designate a competent body or bodies to carry out supervision and enforcement tasks. This does not affect the rights of passengers to seek legal redress from courts under national law.
(22) Taking into account the procedures established by Member States for the submission of complaints, a complaint concerning assistance should preferably be addressed to the body or bodies designated for the enforcement of this Regulation in the Member State where the boarding point or alighting point is situated.
(23) Member States should promote the use of public transport and the use of integrated information and integrated tickets in order to optimise the use and interoperability of the various transport modes and operators.
(24) Member States should lay down penalties applicable to infringements of this Regulation and ensure that those penalties are applied. Those penalties should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
(25) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely to ensure an equivalent level of protection of and assistance to passengers in bus and coach transport throughout the Member States, cannot sufficiently be achieved by the Member States and can therefore by reason of the scale and effects of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(26) This Regulation should be without prejudice to Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (8).
(27) The enforcement of this Regulation should be based on Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 2004 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection law (the Regulation on consumer protection cooperation) (9). That Regulation should therefore be amended accordingly.
(28) This Regulation respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, as referred to in Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union, bearing in mind also Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin (10) and Council Directive 2004/113/EC of 13 December 2004 implementing the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services (11),
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1
Subject matter
This Regulation establishes rules for bus and coach transport as regards the following:
(a) non-discrimination between passengers with regard to transport conditions offered by carriers;
(b) rights of passengers in the event of accidents arising out of the use of the bus or coach resulting in death or personal injury or loss of or damage to luggage;
(c) non-discrimination and mandatory assistance for disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility;
(d) rights of passengers in cases of cancellation or delay;
(e) minimum information to be provided to passengers;
(f) handling of complaints;
(g) general rules on enforcement.
Article 2
Scope
This Regulation shall apply to passengers travelling with regular services for non-specified categories of passengers where the boarding or the alighting point of the passengers is situated in the territory of a Member State and where the scheduled distance of the service is 250 km or more.
As regards the services referred to in paragraph 1 but where the scheduled distance of the service is shorter than 250 km, Article 4(2), Article 9, Article 10(1), point (b) of Article 16(1), Article 16(2), Article 17(1) and (2), and Articles 24 to 28 shall apply.
In addition, with the exception of Articles 9 to 16, Article 17(3), and Chapters IV, V and VI, this Regulation shall apply to passengers travelling with occasional services where the initial boarding point or the final alighting point of the passenger is situated in the territory of a Member State.
With the exception of Article 4(2), Article 9, Article 10(1), point (b) of Article 16(1), Article 16(2), Article 17(1) and (2), and Articles 24 to 28, Member States may, on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis, exempt domestic regular services from the application of this Regulation. Such exemptions may be granted as from the date of application of this Regulation for a period no longer than 4 years, which may be renewed once.
For a maximum period of 4 years from the date of application of this Regulation, Member States may, on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis, exempt from the application of this Regulation particular regular services because a significant part of such regular services, including at least one scheduled stop, is operated outside the Union. Such exemptions may be renewed once.
Member States shall inform the Commission of exemptions of different types of services granted pursuant to paragraphs 4 and 5. The Commission shall take appropriate action if such an exemption is deemed not to be in accordance with the provisions of this Article. By 2 March 2018, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on exemptions granted pursuant to paragraphs 4 and 5.
Nothing in this Regulation shall be understood as conflicting with or introducing additional requirements to those in current legislation on technical requirements for buses or coaches or infrastructure or equipment at bus stops and terminals.
This Regulation shall not affect the rights of passengers under Directive 90/314/EEC and shall not apply in case where a package tour referred to in that Directive is cancelled for reasons other than cancellation of a regular service.
Article 3
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
(a) ‘regular services’ means services which provide for the carriage of passengers by bus or coach at specified intervals along specified routes, passengers being picked up and set down at predetermined stopping points;
(b) ‘occasional services’ means services which do not fall within the definition of regular services and the main characteristic of which is the carriage by bus or coach of groups of passengers constituted on the initiative of the customer or the carrier himself;
(c) ‘transport contract’ means a contract of carriage between a carrier and a passenger for the provision of one or more regular or occasional services;
(d) ‘ticket’ means a valid document or other evidence of a transport contract;
(e) ‘carrier’ means a natural or legal person, other than a tour operator, travel agent or ticket vendor, offering transport by regular or occasional services to the general public;
(f) ‘performing carrier’ means a natural or legal person other than the carrier, who actually performs the carriage wholly or partially;
(g) ‘ticket vendor’ means any intermediary concluding transport contracts on behalf of a carrier;
(h) ‘travel agent’ means any intermediary acting on behalf of a passenger for the conclusion of transport contracts;
(i) ‘tour operator’ means an organiser or retailer, other than the carrier, within the meaning of Article 2(2) and (3) of Directive 90/314/EEC;
(j) ‘disabled person’ or ‘person with reduced mobility’ means any person whose mobility when using transport is reduced as a result of any physical disability (sensory or locomotory, permanent or temporary), intellectual disability or impairment, or any other cause of disability, or as a result of age, and whose situation needs appropriate attention and adaptation to his particular needs of the services made available to all passengers;
(k) ‘access conditions’ means relevant standards, guidelines and information on the accessibility of buses and/or of designated terminals including their facilities for disabled persons or persons with reduced mobility;
(l) ‘reservation’ means a booking of a seat on board a bus or coach for a regular service at a specific departure time;
(m) ‘terminal’ means a staffed terminal where according to the specified route a regular service is scheduled to stop for passengers to board or alight, equipped with facilities such as a check-in counter, waiting room or ticket office;
(n) ‘bus stop’ means any point other than a terminal where according to the specified route a regular service is scheduled to stop for passengers to board or alight;
(o) ‘terminal managing body’ means an organisational entity in a Member State responsible for the management of a designated terminal;
(p) ‘cancellation’ means the non-operation of a regular service which was previously scheduled;
(q) ‘delay’ means a difference between the time the regular service was scheduled to depart in accordance with the published timetable and the time of its actual departure.
Article 4
Tickets and non-discriminatory contract conditions
Carriers shall issue a ticket to the passenger, unless other documents give entitlement to transport. A ticket may be issued in an electronic format.
Without prejudice to social tariffs, the contract conditions and tariffs applied by carriers shall be offered to the general public without any direct or indirect discrimination based on the nationality of the final customer or on the place of establishment of the carriers, or ticket vendors within the Union.
Article 5
Other performing parties
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