Sustainable Tourism Law

314 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW B.I. The impact of the principles of necessity and proportionality in the law ensuring market unity on the regulation of economic activities Law 20/2013, which ensures market unity, has an effect on Law 17/2009, notably on the administrative intervention schemes established by the latter. As acknowledged in the ruling of the Constitutional Court of 22 June 2017 (STC 79/2017), which partially addresses the appeal made by the Parliament of Catalonia against various provisions of Law 20/2013, this law establishes a series of principles and directives that, as a fundamental outcome, promote the operation of a freer market. They subject the relevant authorities, should they establish mechanisms that limit access to or the practice of an economic activity or should they require compliance with some sort of provision, to greater restrictions and conditions than those that existed before the ratification of this regulation. These restrictions and conditions on the ability of public powers to intervene in the economy result in the deregulation of the market. Basically, the Constitutional Court, in the aforementioned ruling, states that one of the objectives of Law 20/2013 is to remove obstacles and impediments stemming from the expansion of regulations on the freedom to undertake economic activities within a market that strives for unity, and it does so by extending the regulations contained in Law 17/2009 to all economic activities, obviously including tourism, which was originally subject to the Services Directive – and its incorporation into Spanish legislation via Law 17/2009 and autonomous community-level legislation – which, according to section 33, can be considered applicable to tourism services 5 . Law 17/2009 establishes a precedent regarding market unity in the service sector (including tourism). But under Law 20/2013, regulation extends to all economic activities in such a way that it is applicable to all of the sectors of the economy that were expressly excluded from the Services Directive, such 5 Section 33 of the Services Directive states that the notion of a “service” includes a wide-ranging set of activities that are constantly evolving, among them (…) travel agencies. Services destined for consumers are also included, such as those related to tourism, including tour guides (…) [emphasis added].