Sustainable Tourism Law

310 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW – by Ruling 357/2014 of 12 June of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia in their declaration of invalidity of some of the provisions of the Special Plan for Public Buildings, Hospitality Establishments and Other Services in the Ciutat Vella District, ratified by the Plenary Council of the Barcelona City Council on 23 July 2010 (similarly, see STSJ of Catalonia 199/2014 of 2 April). II.2. The clash between the guarantee of market unity and restrictions on accessing the touristic commercialization of residences As previously mentioned, some autonomous community-level and municipal regulations, in addition to referring to (or utilizing) zoning techniques to delimit areas meant for vacation rentals, contain other limits and restrictions on accessing the touristic commercialization of residences. They include the establishment of maximum capacities, the prohibition of using buildings that are less than five years old for tourism purposes, being bound to a sworn statement for up to five years, forbidding contracts for the marketing of rooms for vacation rentals, or demanding that owners’ boards of apartment blocks come to some kind of an agreement. Both competition authorities and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness have commented that restrictions of this nature could lead to a clash between the principle of open competition and the principles established under the Services Directive of the domestic market of 2006, or between the principle of freedom of enterprise recognized in article 38 of the Spanish Constitution and the guarantee of market unity. A) The application of the Services Directive in the touristic commerciali- zation of dwellings The Services Directive and its incorporation into national law (fundamentally through Law 17/2009 of 23 November on free access to service activities and their practice [hereafter, Law 17/2009] and Law 20/2013 of 9 December which ensures market unity [hereafter, Law 20/2013] and which modifies Law 17/2009), more than just aiming to streamline the government via rational organizational structures and putting a “one-stop-shop” system into place, primarily affects the manner in which relationships between the government and service providers are structured. Its framework ensures a transition from an “authorizing” government to a “supervisory” government in order to guarantee the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services within the European Union. As previously mentioned, some entities have warned that the establishment of restrictions on accessing tourism commercialization can lead to