Traditional medicine

How to choose an airline. What is important when choosing an airline

Tourists' dissatisfaction with the quality of services provided by various tour operators occurs everywhere, but for some reason the overwhelming majority of citizens are not eager to defend their rights, apparently believing that this will lead to nothing, and going to court will only result in a waste of money, health and time. But such an opinion, which has already taken root, is only a consequence of independent attempts to represent one’s interests in court. Believe me, even daily study of laws and legal literature before court hearings will not replace you with legal literacy and many years of practice that our company’s lawyers have. So, how can you defend your rights violated by a tour operator in court?

Making a claim against the tour operator

Filing a claim is most often a necessary stage that precedes trial. And the proper execution of such a document is of great importance.

A convincing and impeccable claim against a tour operator is possible way out-of-court resolution of disagreements between the parties to the contract. As a rule, such a claim must reflect the main points of the contract that were violated by one of its parties, as a result of which the second party suffered certain losses, and also refer to regulations, the violation of which is not permitted by law.

The main purpose of drawing up and submitting a claim is to minimize the amount of funds spent on trial, and in most situations - to avoid court altogether, thereby maintaining normal relations with the company.

If the claim presented to the tour operator did not bring positive result, and you have decided to sue, then the next step is to draw up a statement of claim. Our company’s specialists will help you draw up a legally competent statement of claim, as well as assemble a package necessary documents, and take it all to court.

We draw up and file a lawsuit against the tour operator

As a rule, all applications to court against tourism operators are filed under the wording “failure to provide or untimely provision of information, or provision to tourists of information that is not true.” A tourist has the right to sue a tour operator if, for example, he encounters the following violations while on vacation:

discrepancy between the hotel class and that specified in the contract;
the hotel’s location is too far from the beach, which the travel agency “kept silent” about;
unsanitary conditions, poor condition of rooms;
poor nutrition;
certain transport problems (flight delays and cancellations, difficulties with transfers);
poor excursion program (for example, lack of a Russian-speaking guide, cancellation of paid excursions), etc.

The statement of claim must be drawn up in accordance with the requirements of the Code of Civil Procedure Russian Federation. The plaintiff has the right to send an application to the court at the location of the defendant or at his place of residence.

Long-term judicial practice shows that an incorrectly drawn up statement of claim and the absence of the required documents in the case can overnight change the judge’s attitude towards the plaintiff for the worse. And this can affect the result - that is, the future court decision.

Four years ago, my friend and I bought a trip to Thailand, but I got sick and didn’t go. Illness is a valid reason, so I wanted a refund for the tour. But the agency and operator refused. I went to court and won.

In this article - how I got to court, what happened there, how and why I won. And the most interesting thing is how I later received the money. And how long did it all take?

I'll tell you step by step.

Pre-trial claim

When I felt that I was getting sick, I immediately called the travel agent - this is the company through which I bought the tour. The manager reacted harshly: he raised his voice at me and refused to return anything. The second time he stopped picking up the phone.

I called the tour operator - the company that is responsible for the execution of my tour. A call center specialist answered me by phone, but he didn’t help either: I’ll either have to go to Thailand sick or give up the money I spent. Neither one nor the other suited me.

The tourism law states that a tourist can refuse a trip due to circumstances beyond his control - due to illness, refusal of a visa or other reasons. In this case, the money for the trip must be returned. Illness is my case. So we will fight.

Key point. Suspecting that the case would go to trial, I immediately began collecting evidence. I called the local doctor to later get a certificate from the clinic. Sent a written refusal of the trip due to illness email And by registered mail. Thanks to this, the travel agent was not able to claim in court that I did not contact him.

When the travel agent stopped answering calls and letters, I turned to a lawyer I knew. He advised sending the agency pre-trial claim. I sent it, waited 17 days, did not receive a response and went to court with a lawsuit.

A pre-trial claim is a formal declaration of war, but without involving a court. You seem to be telling the company: “You are wrong, return the money.” And if after this the company refuses you, you have every right go to court.

The laws do not regulate in any way the form of pre-trial claims. However, lawyers advise indicating to whom, from whom, why and when it was sent. If the consumer submits a claim in person, you need to prepare two copies: for the executor and for yourself. On the second copy, the contractor's employee or lawyer will put a signature and date of delivery.

My complaint is to the travel agent. It can be written in free form

If the claim is motivated and legitimate, then the company is obliged to satisfy it within 10 days. The court considers another 7 days to be sufficient time for a registered letter sent on the last day to reach the addressee. A total of 17 days of waiting - suddenly the travel agency comes to its senses and decides to return the money in an amicable way.

To go to court, you first need to draw up a statement of claim. This is the document on the basis of which the court considers the case. Kind of asking the court to judge you. It is compiled by the one who has the claim - that is, me.

A lawyer helped us prepare the statement of claim. In it I demanded:

To prepare a claim, the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights” was useful:

termination of the contract due to illness;
refund of the full cost of the trip;
compensation for moral damage;
fine the company for not complying with the requirements voluntarily.

In total, I asked to return 112,450 RUR. The lawyer advised me to ask for the maximum amount possible under the law, because the court may partially satisfy the claim.

Court costs

We decided to save money and not hire a lawyer to represent us in court. Representation in court is estimated in hours - it is not known how many sessions will be required or how long each of them will last.

Three years ago, I did not know that all of my attorney fees could be recovered from the defendant in a separate lawsuit. Unfortunately, now I can no longer do this, because the statute of limitations has expired - those same three years. For the future, know: if the trial costs you dearly, you can sue the defendant for that money.

Who are lawyers, why are they needed and what to do with them

My claim fell under the law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”. This means that the state gave me two concessions as a plaintiff. The claim was exempted from the fee, and I could decide for myself which court I should go to - the one closest to my place of residence according to registration, the one closest to the defendant, or the one closest to the place where the agreement was concluded.

I filed a lawsuit in Kanavinsky district court V Nizhny Novgorod, five minutes walk from the house. Two weeks later I was informed of the date of the preliminary hearing - at which the plaintiff and defendant brought the court up to date with the case.

Part 1. Children's questions about Russian justice

At the court hearing, I explained what happened to me and what forced me to go to court. I calmly told everything as it happened.

The defendant was represented by an attorney. He responded to our complaints by saying that the services had already been provided in the proper quality: the plane did not crash, the hotel received the rest of the tourists, the guides did not lose their groups. And I, they say, did not warn the company about the illness.

Then the substantive meetings began. There were three of them. The court hearings themselves do not take place as shown in programs like “Court Hour”. Both the judge, the defendant, and the plaintiff, as a rule, strive to quickly sort everything out and finish the process. If adequate people have gathered, there will be no unnecessary emotions or knocking on the table with a hammer (I’m not sure that the justice of the peace even has one).

Participants have the right to audio-record the court proceedings. Taking photos and videos is only possible with permission from the court. Persons not participating in the process are allowed to observe with permission ships — They cannot comment on what is happening or talk to the participants in the process.

The judge in the magistrates' court is called the "honorable court".

I brought screenshots to court emails, postal receipts and list of attachments, list of calls from mobile operator, certificate from the clinic. They argued that I really got sick and managed to warn the travel agent about my illness before departure, and did not just want to illegally enrich myself.

I started collecting all these documents immediately after my illness (remember “ key point"?). If I had slowed down and stayed at home without a doctor, I would not have received any certificates and would not have sent any registered letters. These documents played a decisive role in my case.

During the trial, the defendant paid part of the required amount - 13,463 RUR. To compensate for the rest, he proposed to involve the tour operator in the process as a joint defendant. I agreed. To do this, I filed a revised claim in court.

The claim can be clarified at any time until the court makes a decision - Art. 39 Civil Procedure Code

A representative of the tour operator did not come to the last meeting. The court found my claims against the tour operator partially justified. The tour operator had to reimburse me for the cost of the trip (68,300 RUR), pay a fine (29,918.5 RUR), a penalty (3000 RUR) for delay in fulfilling my requirements and compensation for moral damages (2000 RUR). The amount looked strange, but I didn’t object.

The court independently determines compensation for moral damage. IN statement of claim I demanded 10,000 R - the lawyer said that this was a standard amount. The court reduced it to 2000 RUR. Probably, if I had not gotten off with the standard phrase about “moral suffering”, the compensation could have been greater.

After the last meeting, the parties can appeal the court's decision within a month. In my case, the defendants did not file appeals and delay the process.

Debt collection

A month and three days after the last meeting, the court office gave me the court decision and writ of execution- according to it, the plaintiff has the right to demand money from the defendant. The year of birth was mixed up on my writ of execution. I managed to notice this and ask for it to be corrected.

The plaintiff chooses from four options for collecting money:

a) through bailiffs;
b) through the defendant’s bank;
c) through a collection agency;
d) directly from the defendant.

Through bailiffs

Bailiffs professionally recover money and property from debtors. To contact the bailiff service, the plaintiff must receive a writ of execution. In my case it was a writ of execution from the court. On its basis, the responsible bailiff will initiate enforcement proceedings: he will request the debt from the defendant and transfer it to the collector, that is, me. If the debtor refuses, the bailiff will seek the return of money by all possible legal means.

The claimant must contact the Bailiff Service at the place of registration of the defendant. The legal address of the tour operator was in the Dmitrovsky district of Moscow, so I sent the documents to the Dmitrovsky department of the FSSP.

My lawyer said that the bailiffs work for a long time. But as a result, they were the ones who managed it the fastest - within two weeks from the moment they received the writ of execution.

Via bank

Banks accept writs of execution and applications for debt transfer directly from collectors if the collector knows that the debtor’s accounts are opened in a particular bank.

Art. 8 Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”

If the claimant does not know, then contact the tax office - they will tell you in which banks they are open. The bank will satisfy the request if there is enough money in the accounts, or refuse, indicating the reason.

Art. 69 Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”

In the application, the claimant indicates:

your account details to transfer the debt there;
passport details, TIN (if any), details migration card and a document confirming the right to stay or reside in the Russian Federation.

I didn’t know that information about accounts could be requested from the tax office, so I used information from tour operator contracts that tourists posted on the Internet. Because of this, the bank returned the application with a writ of execution several times: each time it found an error in the TIN, OGRN or other data of the tour operator.

I was afraid of losing the writ of execution during forwarding, so I submitted the documents in person. Due to the fact that the bank was in Moscow, my friend and I went there in turns - for this I issued a power of attorney from a notary. It cost 1200 RUR.

We spent seven months traveling to Moscow and trying to get money from the bank. After this they turned to the bailiffs.

Directly

A collector with a writ of execution can directly contact the debtor organization and ask to transfer the debt to his current account. If the defendant agrees and pays, then we can conclude a settlement agreement - they say, that’s it, we’ve made peace.

It is possible to conclude a settlement agreement with the defendant even if the bailiff managed to initiate enforcement proceedings. To do this, the claimant and the debtor collect an application for approval of the settlement agreement, a copy of the writ of execution and a certificate from the bailiff about the initiation of enforcement proceedings. We submit all this to the court, which issued the writ of execution. The settlement agreement comes into force upon approval by the court.

Theoretically this is the most quick option, but we didn't use it.

Result

I got sick on January 31, 2013, and filed a lawsuit in March. The court made its decision on October 11, 2013. We received the money on September 23, 2014:

If I had immediately gone to the bailiffs, I could have repaid the debt in November 2013.

If you get sick before your trip

Notify the tour operator. Call and let them know that you are sick, have called a doctor and will not be able to travel. Record the conversation on a voice recorder. If the travel agency responds inadequately, proceed to the following points.
Collect evidence immediately. Take certificates from doctors and do not forget to certify them. Send or duplicate sending of all documents by registered mail with a list of attachments. If you correspond by email, take screenshots. At the trial, invite the judge to log into your account and look at the correspondence.
Negotiate first. Don't go straight to court. Talk. If you can't reach an agreement, consult with a lawyer to be sure you're in the right place. Submit a pre-trial claim. If there is no answer, go to court.
Go to the meetings yourself or hire a lawyer. The lawyer will have to pay for each hour of representation. But if you win, the court will oblige the defendant to cover the costs in full or reimburse part of them.
Submit the writ of execution to the bailiffs or to the bank. If the court rules in your favor, take the writ of execution, check for typos and hand it over to the bailiffs. You can also try contacting the debtor directly, a bank or a collection agency.

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And he won

Three years ago, my friend and I bought a trip to Thailand, but I got sick and didn’t go.

Illness is a valid reason, so I wanted a refund for the tour. But the agency and operator refused. I went to court and won.

Mitya Morovov

failed tourist

In this article - how I got to court, what happened there, how and why I won. And the most interesting thing is how I later received the money. And how long did it all take?

I'll tell you step by step.

Pre-trial claim

Key point. Suspecting that the case would go to trial, I immediately began collecting evidence. I called the local doctor to later get a certificate from the clinic. I sent a written refusal of the trip due to illness by email and registered mail. Thanks to this, the travel agent was not able to claim in court that I did not contact him.

When the travel agent stopped answering calls and letters, I turned to a lawyer I knew. He advised sending the agency a pre-trial claim. I sent it, waited 17 days, did not receive a response and went to court with a lawsuit.

My complaint is to the travel agent. It can be written in free form

Court

termination of the contract due to illness;
refund of the full cost of the trip;
compensation for moral damage;
fine the company for not complying with the requirements voluntarily.

In total, I asked to return 112,450 RUR. The lawyer advised to ask for the maximum amount possible by law, because the court may partially satisfy the claim.

Court costs

At the court hearing, I explained what happened to me and what forced me to go to court. I calmly told everything as it happened.

Participants have the right to audio-record the court proceedings. Taking photos and videos is only possible with permission from the court. Persons not participating in the process are allowed to observe with the permission of the court - they cannot comment on what is happening or talk to the participants in the process.

The judge in the magistrates' court is called the "honorable court".

I brought to the court screenshots of emails, postal receipts and a list of attachments, a list of calls from a mobile operator, and a certificate from the clinic. They argued that I really got sick and managed to warn the travel agent about my illness before departure, and did not just want to illegally enrich myself.

I started collecting all these documents immediately after my illness (remember the “key moment”?). If I had slowed down and stayed at home without a doctor, I would not have received any certificates and would not have sent any registered letters. These documents played a decisive role in my case.

During the trial, the defendant paid part of the required amount - 13,463 RUR. To compensate for the rest, he proposed to involve the tour operator in the process as a joint and several defendant. I agreed. To do this, I filed a revised claim in court.

A representative of the tour operator did not come to the last meeting. The court found my claims against the tour operator partially justified. The tour operator had to reimburse me for the cost of the trip (68,300 RUR), pay a fine (29,918.5 RUR), a penalty (3000 RUR) for delay in fulfilling my requirements and compensation for moral damage (2000 RUR). The amount looked strange, but I didn’t object.

The court independently determines compensation for moral damage. In the statement of claim, I demanded 10,000 RUR - the lawyer said that this was a standard amount. The court reduced it to 2000 RUR. Probably, if I had not gotten away with the standard phrase about “moral suffering,” the compensation could have been greater.

After the last meeting, the parties can appeal the court's decision within a month. In my case, the defendants did not file appeals and delay the process.

Debt collection

A month and three days after the last meeting, the court office handed me the court decision and a writ of execution - according to it, the plaintiff has the right to demand money from the defendant. The year of birth was mixed up on my writ of execution. I managed to notice this and ask for it to be corrected.

The plaintiff chooses from four options for collecting money:

through bailiffs;
through the defendant's bank;
through a collection agency;
directly from the defendant.

Through bailiffs

My lawyer said that the bailiffs work for a long time. But as a result, they were the ones who managed it the fastest - within two weeks from the moment they received the writ of execution.

Via bank

Banks accept writs of execution and applications for debt transfer directly from collectors if the collector knows that the debtor’s accounts are opened in a particular bank.

In the application, the claimant indicates:

Your account details to transfer the debt there.
Passport details, TIN (if any), details of the migration card and document confirming the right to stay or reside in the Russian Federation.

We spent seven months traveling to Moscow and trying to get money from the bank. After this they turned to the bailiffs.

Directly

In theory this is the fastest option, but we didn't use it.

Result

I got sick on January 31, 2013, and filed a lawsuit in March. The court made its decision on October 11, 2013. We received the money on September 23, 2014:

If I had immediately gone to the bailiffs, I could have repaid the debt in November 2013.

If you get sick before your trip

Notify the tour operator. Call and let them know that you are sick, have called a doctor and will not be able to travel. Record the conversation on a voice recorder. If the travel agency responds inadequately, proceed to the following points.
Collect evidence immediately. Take certificates from doctors and do not forget to certify them. Send or duplicate sending of all documents by registered mail with a list of attachments. If you correspond by email, take screenshots. At the trial, invite the judge to log into your account and look at the correspondence.
Negotiate first. Don't go straight to court. Talk. If you can't reach an agreement, consult with a lawyer to be sure you're in the right place. Submit a pre-trial claim. If there is no answer, go to court.
Go to the meetings yourself or hire a lawyer. The lawyer will have to pay for each hour of representation. But if you win, the court will oblige the defendant to cover the costs in full or reimburse part of them.
Submit the writ of execution to the bailiffs or to the bank. If the court rules in your favor, take the writ of execution, check for typos and hand it over to the bailiffs. You can also try contacting the debtor directly, a bank or a collection agency.

If voluntary order the refund of the cost of the tourist tour did not produce results, the tourist decides to send legal claims to the tour operator. Why is it required? pre-trial procedure settling a dispute with a travel agency?

The purchase of a trip is always formalized in a written contract, since at least three regulations: Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Federal Law on Tourism Activities and the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights, and are subject to general requirement to mandatory voluntary settlement of issues of termination, modification or termination of an agreement on the sale of a tourism product and the provision of tourism services.

It is assumed that the main dispute in relations between tourists and travel companies is the determination of the grounds for making payments on financial security. But, fortunately, many tourists are mistaken - the legislator regulated these grounds in the law on tourism activities organized on the territory of Russia. In particular, Art. 17.4 provides a list of grounds the presence of which is necessary for payment cash tourists. Firstly, significant violations by the tour operator of the terms of the agreement on the sale of vouchers to tourists; establishing a significant deficiency in the tourism product being sold; a significant violation of the requirements for the quality and safety of tourist violation of obligations for the transportation or accommodation of tourists according to the voucher, which are the main tourist services of the transaction. The main thing to know is that the violation committed is a significant drawback of the service provided by the tour operator. For precise definition"signs of a significant violation", in addition to the special law, it is necessary to be guided by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the existing judicial practice. Financial payments about which we're talking about in this article, are carried out only in the event of real damage to the tourist or in part of the cost of the unfulfilled tourist service. It is also convenient because the tourist can present his demands not only to the tour operator, but also to the travel agent and the guarantor.

The travel agent and tour operator are co-defendants. This often occurs during court proceedings on claims of tourists to whom services were provided. poor quality or were not provided at all. Read on to find out who is responsible to tourists and to what extent.

Responsibility of the tour operator to the tourist

The legal basis for the responsibility of tour operators to tourists or other customers of tourism products is laid down in Art. 9 of the Law “On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activities in the Russian Federation” dated November 24, 1996 No. 132-FZ (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 132-FZ).

So, the tour operator:

ensures the provision of all services included in the tourism product formed by him, regardless of whether he provides such services independently or with the involvement of third parties (paragraph 2);
the tour operator and travel agent bear independent responsibility to each other and tourists (paragraph 3);
under an agreement drawn up by a travel agent, the operator is responsible for the failure to provide or improper provision of services included in the tourism product, and it also does not matter who did not provide such services (paragraph 4);
unless otherwise established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, the tour operator is responsible to tourists for the actions or inactions of third parties attracted by it (paragraph 5).

As an example, the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Resolution No. 17 dated June 28, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as Resolution No. 17) explains that the proper defendant in disputes arising from contracts for transportation on charter flights, issued as part of the execution of an agreement on the sale of tourism products, is the tour operator (clause 50).

Even the commission paid by the tourist to the agent may be recovered from the tour operator. The courts consider it as a loss based on the provisions of Art. 15 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and attribute it to the account of the main contractor under the contract - the tour operator. See for more details paragraph 48 of Resolution No. 17, ruling of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court dated April 4, 2017 in case No. 33-3746/2017.

Financial support for the responsibility of the tour operator

As we can see, there are many cases where a tour operator can be held financially liable. In order to guarantee payment of compensation for harm caused to tourists, operators must have appropriate financial support. Payments can be guaranteed bank guarantee or an operator liability insurance agreement (Article 17.1 of Law No. 132-FZ). Each tourist who has drawn up an agreement on the sale of a tourism product is guaranteed such financial support:

refund of money for services not provided both by the tour operator itself and by third parties who were entrusted with fulfilling obligations under the contract;
payment of actual damage incurred by tourists due to failure to provide services under the contract, including the costs of evacuation from the country where the holiday took place.

If the tour operator fails to fulfill the obligation to make such payments to tourists, the latter have the right to directly file a claim with the insurer that insured the operator’s liability, or with the credit institution that issued the bank guarantee.

The amount of financial support is established by Art. 17.2 of Law No. 132-FZ and must be no less than:

500,000 rub. for domestic and inbound tourism operators;
10 million rub. for operators who transported no more than 10,000 people and received no more than 40 million rubles for this. per year;
5% of the total price of the outbound tourism product, but not less than 50 million rubles. for other outbound tourism operators.

Can a tourist collect money from a travel agent?

The responsibility of the tour operator and travel agent to each other and to tourists is essential condition agency agreement drawn up by the tour operator and agent (Article 9 of Law No. 132-FZ). Below are examples from judicial practice when funds were collected from the travel agent:

The travel agent did not book the travel product with the operator and did not pay for it, which is why the tour paid for by the tourist did not take place. The cost of services not provided, a fine and compensation for moral damages were collected from the guilty travel agent (decision of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court dated March 28, 2017 in case No. 33-5495/2017).
The travel agent did not inform the tourist about the travel conditions, which is why the tourist was unable to take advantage of the tour. The agency agreement establishes the responsibility of the travel agent for providing such information (decision of the Yoshkar-Ola City Court dated November 29, 2016 in case No. 11-508/2016).
The travel agent did not convey to the tourist information about the involvement of a tour operator in booking a tour that was not specified in the contract for the sale of the tourism product, as well as about the category of the booked room and living conditions (decision of the Murmansk Regional Court dated November 23, 2016 in case No. 33-3810/2016).

Recourse claim of a travel agent against a tour operator

Can a travel agent recover from a tour operator by way of recourse?

Of course, no one can limit his right to judicial protection in general and a recourse claim in particular (see, for example, the resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region dated November 18, 2010 in case No. A40-28265/10-52-255).

However, the courts almost always involve the tour operator and the travel agent as co-defendants, but, as a rule, responsibility is assigned to one person: the agent, when his guilt is established, or the tour operator, who, by virtue of the law, is responsible to tourists for himself and the third parties involved. Accordingly, if the consumer’s damages are recovered from the travel agent, and the tour operator is found not to be involved in the tourists’ losses, the prospect of satisfying the travel agent’s recourse claim against the tour operator looks doubtful.

Filing a complaint with a tour operator

Information about who, where and within what time frame a claim can be filed in case of violation of the terms of the contract is an essential condition of the contract for the sale of tourism products (Article 10, 10.1 of Law No. 132-FZ). You can read more about drawing up such an agreement in the article How to draw up an agreement between a tour operator and a travel agent? Claims regarding the quality of a tourist product must be submitted in writing within 20 days from the end of the contract. The period for consideration of stated claims is 10 days.

The claim may contain information:

about failure to provide the tourist with complete and reliable information on tourism products (Clause 1, Article 29 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” dated 02/07/1992 No. 2300-I (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 2300-I);
violation of terms for the provision of tourist services, elimination of deficiencies (Articles 28, 30, 31 of Law No. 2300-I);
detection of shortcomings in a tourism product (Article 29 of Law No. 2300-I);
violation of the right to unilateral refusal to fulfill the contract (Article 32 of Law No. 2300-I).

In the event that a tourist requests a refund for services not provided, the period for voluntary fulfillment of the request is also 10 days (Article 31 of Law No. 2300-I). For violation of such a deadline, a penalty of 3% for each day of delay may be charged (Clause 5, Article 28 of Law No. 2300-I).

Bankruptcy of tour operators

In the last 2-3 years, cases of bankruptcy of tour operators have become more frequent, which is associated with unstable economic and political situation. For the urgent evacuation of tourists from vacation spots and the return of funds for unused tourist products, the financial support of operators, which we described above, is used.

The procedure for paying insurance compensation or funds under a bank guarantee is provided for in Art. 17.5 of Law No. 132-FZ. To make a payment, you must send an application to the bank or insurer indicating:

Full name of the tourist and the name of the tour operator;
details of the document presented as financial security for the operator;
numbers and dates of the contract for the sale of tourism products;
information about the fact of non-performance of services by the operator;
the extent of actual harm caused to the tourist.

In the case where the financial security is a bank guarantee, it will additionally be necessary to provide information about the tour operator’s refusal to voluntarily compensate for losses and (or) a court decision on the operator’s compensation for actual losses.

The deadline for satisfying requirements is 30 calendar days. If the funds from the financial security are not enough to satisfy all the requirements, the payment is made in proportion to the amounts of the stated requirements for the amount of the financial security. Payment of insurance compensation does not deprive the tourist of the right to demand compensation from the operator for moral damages and (or) payment for lost profits.

Thus, the law strictly regulates the limits of liability of travel agents and tour operators, therefore, when they are involved as co-defendants, responsibility is assigned, as a rule, to the operators. The travel agent is responsible to the tourist only for his guilty actions or inaction.