Transport law

The transport law is the part of the Droit which applies to the Transporteur S (like the airline companies, the Autocariste S, the road carriers, the companies of railroad or the companies of navigation), with the customers and users of these means of transport, like with the intermediaries, such as transport commissioners, Voyagiste S, and retailers of billets.

Transport law is divided into several categories according to:

according to whether it is a question of goods or passenger transport;
according to the Means of transport considered; thus there exists the maritime law, the air law, the right of tourism, the right of the surface transport and the right of the multimode Transport;
according to whether it is a question of transport national (or interior), subjected to the legislation of the country considered, or international transport, governed by international conventions, such as the Convention of Warsaw for air transport, the Convention CMR or the TIR convention for road transport, or the Convention of Bern for the rail-bound transport.

Transport law rests mainly on the Contrat of Transport and is applicable in the major part of the cases only to the condition that such a contract exists.

In general, the conveyer is subjected to an obligation of result: to convey at good port the goods in good state and the travellers healthy and except, within the agreed times. It can release from this obligation only in the case of major force, but it can sometimes limit its Responsabilité by convention.

General terms of sales

Transport law regulates the general terms of sales of all transport services that it is by terrestrial way, air or maritime. The general terms of sales thus concern the laws.

Maritime law

August 1st

Air law

Right of the surface transport

Transport law multimode

Right of tourism

The right of tourism depends mainly on the law numbers 92-645 on the July 13rd 1992, according to the decree numbers 94-490 of the June 15th 1994 taken pursuant to the article numbers 31 of known named the law, fixing the conditions of exercise of the activities relating to the organization and the sale of voyages or séjour.
Il out of spring primarily the fact that the salesman or retailer of a service of transport is in the obligation to publish a contract of carriage, to warn the customer of the possible particular conditions of possible sales and revision of price authorized by the law numbers 92-645.

Authorized revisions of the price

The price of a tourist service of transport can evolve/move with the fall (it is extremely rare) or with the rise in the following cases:

substantial Rise of the oil price during without fall during at least 30 days consecutive.
substantial Rise of foreign exchange rates for services abroad in front of being regulated in currencies.
substantial Rise of the air taxes and royalties airports.

Responsibility for the salesman or the retailer

The law of July 13rd, 1992 fixes the responsibilities for the salesman and from the tourist retailer of service, it comes out from it primarily which the retailer responsible for the services that it is provided to the purchasing customer. Thus in the event of litigation after the resale of a stay sold by a Tour operator the customer is turned over not against the turn operator but indeed against the retailer i.e. the travel agency in the majority of the cases.

The retailer thus has a duty of information and council which engages it near its purchasing customer.

In the event of litigations, the retailer has the right to be turned over against the salesman, this order is very important because that means that the customer is compensated if it is necessary by the retailer who then must be done itself to compensate by the salesman.

There has existed however a fault for one year hardly the law of July 13rd, 1992 is in dissension with the law governing the Internet sales, according to this last law the salesman on Internet is responsible for the “good progress of the services bought as provided at the time of sale” and it is guaranteeing services which he sells or resells, i.e. it is responsible if the services are not carried out as not envisaged at the time of the sale. That is in dissension with the law of 1992 which it envisages a responsibility compared to a contract of carriage. In the facts, that means that the retailer of plane ticket is prone to a different legal treatment according to whether he carries on his activity of Internet sales or in step of door.

Example: if the customer buys his plane ticket in traditional travel agency having well-established and that the plane which it was to borrow does not take off, the customer is turned over against the company there because the contract of carriage i.e. the plane ticket envisages in this case the integral and single responsibility for the airline company.

If the customer buys the same plane ticket on Internet and that the plane which it was to borrow does not take off, the customer is turned over then against the travel agency on Internet which is completely responsible since the law governing the trade on Internet is based on the sale contract and not on the contract of carriage, the travel agency on Internet is thus “responsible for the good performance of the planes of the companies”.

This example shows well the treatment difference and the problems that is likely to generate in the future.

Particular conditions of sales

The particular conditions of sales of service of transport are regulated by the contract of carriage. They are thus fixed by the conveyer him even and/or the retailer (like an travel agency or a tour operator). These particular conditions allow almost to do everything the only requirement to be followed being that no condition particular of sale can go against or be in dissension with the general terms of sales fixed by the laws . In fact it is possible to evoke a hierarchy, the general terms concern the laws, they are thus higher than the particular conditions which concern the sales strategy and the relational policy that the conveyer or the retailer wishes.

What concern the particular conditions of sales

The particular conditions of sales are fixed by the organizer and/or the supplier of the service of transport. It is about Clause S particular that the conveyer, the salesman or the retailer apply in order to stage to the lacks of the laws governing their activities or quite simply in order to apply a sales strategy. All clauses in agreement and not going against the laws is valid, thus the particular conditions of sales often aim the amount of the installments or the down payments to be poured, the method of inscription and reservations, possible the change of program which it is possible to meet, revisions of price in the cases authorized by the laws, the expenses in the event of modifications or of cancellation on behalf of the customer or the salesman, the exclusion of responsibility in the event of nonconformity for the passengers or the goods with the formality for police force, health or customs, the limitations of responsibility on the level for insurances etc

Modification

Very often in the event of modifications of the service of transport on behalf of the user, the conveyer takes expenses of modifications, that can vary between a few tens of euros and the total costs of the service. There exists for that of the insurances which in the event of modifications for reason of major force refund with the user all or part of the expenses which it paid. With regard to the modifications on behalf of the conveyer, his responsibility is very often null because the modifications often originate in a case of major force.

Refunding

The same applies to the applications for repayment, very often if the service of transport is not used it is lost for the user, only transport in full price in general make it possible to obtain a full repayment or partial. There exist thus insurances cancellations which allow in the event of cancellation for case of major force to be made refund the cost invested in the service of transport.

The transport of the goods

The transport of the goods is subjected to a particular legislation, different from those of the passenger transport. The right as regards transport of the goods depends on the type of goods, thus it exists quite particular regulations for the carriage of explosives, substances radioactive S, weapons, goods of value etc.

Types of goods

Transport law defines for the goods transport of the categories according to the type of goods transported, these categories are international i.e. they are coded in identical ways on a worldwide scale however the legislations in force in the countries can vary and the legal treatment of these goods can thus be different from one country to the autre.
Suit a nonexhaustive list of the categories of goods:

Radioactive substances, this category is subdivided according to the degree of radioactivity of the product.
Explosive substances.
Weapons, this category is subdivided according to the class of the weapons considered.
polluting Substances.
flammable Substances.
highly flammable Substances.
Parts of plane or mechanical machine flying.
Goods of values, very vast category including the cigarettes, alcohol, perfumes, manufactured goods of luxury…
very heavy Goods, like bulky metal machine tools.
diplomatic Luggage.
Presses.
etc

Each one of these categories of goods is subjected to a quite precise regulation.

International law of transport

The international law of transport fixes the applicable rules as regards transport on a worldwide scale and grants an identical international legal framework recognized by and within all the states having ratified these international agreements.

The Convention of Warsaw

The Convention of Chicago

The Convention of Montreal

The Convention CMR

The TIR convention

The Convention of Bern

Works

Markus Bratke, Lehrkommentar Logistikrecht , Duisburg: WiKu-Verlag

See too

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