Within one year, the Federal Republic of Germany paid around 70 million euros to around 50.000 former Thomas Cook customers who received nothing or only part of the insolvency insurance. This emerges from the government's response to a question in the Bundestag.

It is noteworthy, however, that apparently only 60 percent of the beneficiaries have even submitted an application. The Federal Republic of Germany has budgeted 225 million euros for this. However, only a fraction was accessed.

The background to this is that Germany has sloppily implemented the law on the protection of package tours contrary to the EU directive. The insurer's liability was limited to 100 million euros, as it was not expected that an industry heavyweight like Thomas Cook could collapse. Because of the inadequate implementation, the Federal Republic of Germany would have come under official liability. They wanted to avoid a flood of lawsuits and therefore decided to recognize the claim. The money was only called up by a fraction of those entitled.