The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

“solidarity” and organised approaches. However, regulators have shown little sympathy for cartels born “out of need, not greed”. The noblest objectives do not justify cartels and trigger high fines, damage claims and reputational damage. Two examples to briefly illustrate this: First, in the 1990s, German household moving companies that specialised in moving households for US military personnel suffered from the withdrawal of the US Army following the fall of the Berlin wall. They designed a system of subcontracting so that the winner of a tender could share work with the losers. This was investigated by the Bundeskartellamt, who found that there were elements of bid-rigging. Second, in the late 1990s, air-fuel prices increased and rose dramatically, a crisis such that airlines would scratch the paint off their planes to save money. IATA, a respectable organisation, suggested that airlines should introduce a fuel surcharge to be shown on the tickets, to show customers that they were not responsible for the price increases, and the airlines implemented the idea. However, any new tariff applied at any airport requires approval by the airport authority, and local airport authorities were suddenly swamped every three weeks by individual applications from around 60 airlines operating at that airport. To reduce their workload, they suggested that the airlines agree on a common surcharge – a suggestion implemented by the airlines. Notwithstanding the encouragement by competent authorities and the specific regulatory background, this conduct amounted to a competition law infringement and led to a global cartel investigation. IV. Conclusion To conclude, companies in the tourism industry need to think about the appropriate actions in a post-COVID-19 world. They should identify their needs – individually –, develop a plan – individually – and seek proper counsel and advice before reaching out to others, especially competitors. Again the author’s heartfelt gratefulness to Professor Torres and his team for setting this up. An innovative and important conference for the tourism sector in these challenging – but not hopeless – times.