Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1192 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE has a main section dedicated to enforcement but also has a department dedicated to advocacy activities. In this sense, the advocacy department has the advisory function as one of its main responsibilities. CNMC informs, generally at the request of the institutions but sometimes as a self-initiative, regulations of economic content under the prism of competition and efficient economic regulation. In this consultative function, the CNMC reports are not mandatory nor binding, that is to say, that no public body or agency is obliged to request a report on its part, nor is it obliged, in doing so, to follow the recommendations issued by the CNMC. Nevertheless, all the reports are published and have media coverage. Activity on tourismhas been the subject of various files within theCompetition Authority, both from the point of view of enforcement 5 , as from the point of view of advocacy. In this last area, there are varied reports on tourist accommodation, made in recent years. The competition authority has even challenged before the courts some regulations on private houses for tourist use, as they can represent a limit to competition and an obstacle to the principle of freedom of business enshrined in Article 38 of the Spanish Constitution. The CNMC has underlined that, from an advocacy perspective, Public Administrations, when it comes to requiring the fulfillment of conditions for the development of an activity, are to choose the least restrictive measure. Public Administrations must promote competitiveness through regulatory frameworks that favour competition and efficiency in the markets. Likewise, they must avoid that certain rules introduce unjustified distortions that alter the competitive game to the detriment of consumers. IV. CNMC RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE DRAFT OF THE SPANISH TRAVEL PACKAGE ACT UNDER THE COMPETITION PERSPECTIVE It is in this context of advocacy and promotion of the competition principles that the CNMC has made its report, trying to find a balance between the principles of competition (namely, necessity, proportionality and efficient 5 Among them, the file SNC/DC/007/16. In this case, a fine was imposed on the (travel) companies Viajes Halcón and Viajes Barceló. The CNMC imposed a fine of 1.21 million euros on Halcón Viajes and 619,5 million euros on Viajes Barceló for non-compliance with the provisions of the Order of the Competition Court of year 2000 (file 476/99 TRAVEL AGENCIES). In that case, the Competition Court imposed sanctions on 4 travel agencies for submitting identical offers to the IMSERSO travel tender and for agreeing on the joint execution whatever the result of the tender would be.