Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1188 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE I. INTRODUCTION Spain transposed Directive (EU) 2015/2302, in December 2018, by means of a Royal Decree-Law. Before its approval, the draft was sent to the CNMC, which formulated procompetitive recommendations to the text. This commentary now exposes their recommendations and analyses to what extent they have been incorporated into the regulations in force since this year. Although the transposition has been carried out by the Consumer Protection Act, the Autonomous Communities are responsible for developing the regulations on touristic and travel matters. Hence, the CNMC will have to wait for the Autonomous Communities regulations to see the scope and effects of the transposition to the Spanish legal system. The CNMC, under its advocacy powers, reports on regulatory projects with an impact on the economy, providing a pro-competitive approach, according to an analysis of necessity and proportionality and ensuring efficient economic regulation. In this sense, the Competition Authority has reported on several occasions on matters related to the tourism sector, underlining that legislating must take into account the promotion of competition and principles of efficient economic regulation. That is, when the fulfillment of certain conditions for the development of an activity is required, the least restrictive measure must be chosen. Besides, its necessity must be motivated in order to protect the public interest, and these conditions must be justified in order to achieve the goals pursued (principles of necessity and proportionality). There is no exception to the application of European and national legislation regarding the tourism sector and therefore package travel services. Namely, article 2.2 of the Directive 2006/123/CE, on Services in the internal market, does not exclude tourism, therefore it is fully subject to the Directive. The CNMC has reminded that Public Administrations must promote an increasing competition through regulatory frameworks that favour competition and efficiency in themarkets, preventing regulations from introducing unjustified distortions that could alter the competitive game to the detriment of consumers. Unlike other European legal systems, there is no specific law of package travel in Spain and the transposition was made in the Consumer Protection framework. This points out that there is a substantial link between both regulations, package travel and consumer protection. In this sense, it is an occasion to remember that a balance must be found between the promotion of competition and business activity and the adequate protection of consumers. It must be understood that in