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

state of calamity based on COVID-19 11 . This Provisional Measure established that in the context of cancellation of services, reservations and events, the supplier does not have to refund the value if it did one of these three circumstances: i) to reschedule the cancelled services, reservations and events; ii) the availability of credit to use in other reservations, services or events of the same supplier; or iii) other agreement finished between consumer and supplier 12 . This is the general idea of this regulation. In complement of these aspects, it was defined that all aforementioned indications will be without taxes, sanctions or extra costs to the consumer if the consumer indicates his choice within 90 days from the date of publishing of this Provisional Measure 13 , being the deadline of 7 July. The second option (availability of credit) may be used by the consumer within 12 months, having as starting date the end of the state of calamity 14 . In the hypotheses of reschedule, the supplier must respect the seasonality and the value of the originally contracted services 15 . Notwithstanding if the consumers do not select any one of the three options in the indicated time, they have the right to refund the paid value plus any monetary update also within 12 months, having as starting date the end of the state of calamity 16 . Additionally, the Provisional Measure indicates the suppliers that must respect its rules. The first group is the list of 14 kinds of suppliers linked to tourism indicated on the Article 21 of Act No. 11.771/2008 (General Tourism Act) and the second group is movies, theatres and online ticket platforms 17 . The following issue is about the prohibition on the use of pecuniary and non-pecuniary sanctions by consumer administrative bodies listed on Article 56 of Consumer Protection Code. This prohibition was established based on the force majeure caused by COVID-19 and the state of calamity. These are the norms produced by Legislative and Executive efforts to reduce the impacts related to COVID-19 in the Brazilian tourism sector. In the next chapter, some 11 Available on http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2019-2022/2020/Mpv/mpv948.htm , accessed on 10 April 2020. 12 Art. 2, caput . 13 Art. 2, § 1. 14 Art. 2, § 2. 15 Art. 2, § 3. 16 Art. 2, § 4. 17 Art. 3.