Derbyshire First Choice Holidays & Flights Ltd. 5 October 2004D suffered injuries during a skiing accident on holiday. D could have booked the “ski pack” at the time of booking the package holiday but did not do so. Instead, D booked the ski package through F’s representative at the resort. The package was provided by an independent company but D paid F’s representative for it and received a receipt bearing the name of the supplier but also containing F’s logo. F had an arrangement with that company to provide ski packs to all of F’s clients that wanted one.The injuries were caused by defects in the skiing equipment. D claimed under the provisions of the Package Travel Regulations and under F’s terms and condition. Alternatively, D claimed that there was a separate and parallel contract to the package holiday contract with F for the hire of the skiing equipment which F provided by the supplier. F had been negligent in the choice of the supplier.The court held that the hire of the ski pack was not part of the package holiday contract and therefore did not come under the provisions of the Package Travel Regulations. It was not pre-arranged nor inclusively priced. The ski package was sold outside of the territory of the UK. D’s contact was with the independent ski hire company and F was merely the agent. The display of F’s logo and the fact that D paid F did not detract from F’s role as agent in this transaction. There was no evidence that F had been negligent in its selection of a supplier. The accident was as a result of an isolated lapse in checking the equipment.
