ORIGINAL PAPER Why is there a Separation between Distance Selling in EU Law and the Tourism Industry? Josep Maria Bech Serrat Received: 12 May 2009 / Accepted: 8 October 2009 / Published online: 27 October 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC. 2009 Abstract Twelve years have passed since the partial exclusion of most tourist services from the Distance Selling Directive (art. 3 para. 2). The application of a particular right of withdrawal to contracts negotiated away from business premises for the provision of these services was considered inappropriate. Out of this consumer protection will be rather weaker than in other distance contracts. Additional information cannot be required from the service provider and rash decisions resulting from an informational disadvantage, i.e., a lack of personal contact, cannot be rectified by terminating the contract. These difficulties can only be partially resolved by referring to other regulations, such as national norms implementing the E-Commerce Directive (arts. 5 to 11) or the new Timeshare Directive (arts. 4 and 5), among others. Recently, the proposal for a Directive on consumer rights of 8 October 2008 maintains the same approach (art. 20 para. 3, art. 3 para 3) and the Draft Common Frame of Reference also coincides to some extent with the exclusion of some tourist services from distance selling protection. The aim of this paper is to review this exclusion by means of examining the dynamics of tourism services. Keywords Distance selling . Tourism . Information requirements . Right of withdrawal . Package holiday Distance Selling of Tourism Services Many tourists buy services over the Internet, by phone, by mail order or using other means of distance communication. Accommodation, transport, car rental services, catering, leisure services, package holidays and other services are becoming increasingly available to consumers in these ways. Distance selling in tourism covers a wide range of means of communication where the supplier and the consumer are not dealing with each other face to face. Online bookings J Consum Policy (2010) 33:75–89 DOI 10.1007/s10603-009-9112-y J. M. Bech Serrat (*) Tourism School, University of Girona, C/ Pujada dels alemanys, 4, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain e-mail: josepm.bech@udg.edu