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

20 vehicle; and (v) it also exercised some control over the vehicles available to the driver, as well as over the suitability and behaviour of the drivers. The ECJ’s judgment concludes that the intermediary service provided by Uber through the app is an integral part of an overall service whose main element is a transport service. Consequently, that service does not fall within the definition of an “information society service”, since it is inextricably linked to the transport service performed by the drivers and must therefore necessarily be classified as a “service in the field of transport”. IV.2. BlaBlaCar as an intermediary of the information society service For its part, BlaBlaCar, a platform dedicated to carpooling is, in the author’s opinion, a true intermediary of the service of the information society and, consequently, is a typical model of collaborative economy or C2C transaction model. This reality can be seen not only because this platform does not meet the previous requirements that determine its control over private drivers, but also because this has been recognised by our minor jurisprudence, specifically in the ruling of the Commercial Court No. 2 of 2 February 2017 44 . Accordingly, the applicant alleges that BlaBlaCar acts as a transport company without having the necessary authorisations since, in its opinion, (i) the social network allows a person to register on its website with the sole purpose of looking for a driver to take him to his destination, which is predetermined by the user; (ii) there is no prior contact between user and driver until the website makes it possible; (iii) “the journey is paid by seat, it has management costs, travel time and travel, payment through a bank card, etc.”; (iv) it clarifies that it is BlaBlaCar who transfers to the eventual driver “the request to make the trip with him, charges him the amount on the card, notifies him of a reservation number once he receives the acceptance by the service provider, who sends a WhatsApp to meet him”; and (v) finally, it issues “a ticket detailing the amount paid and the management costs in addition to VAT”. 44 The aforementioned ruling of 2 February 2017 resolved the claim for unfair competition filed by the Spanish Confederation of Bus Transportation (CONFEBUS) against COMUTO IBERIA S.L. and COMUTO S.A., through which BlaBlaCar operated.