Competition Law in Tourism

PRACTICES DISTORTING COMPETITION AND REDRESSIVE MEASURES 255 whenever it appears that a third country, with respect to access to the ground handling or self-handling market: (a) does not, de jure or de facto, grant suppliers of ground handling services and self-handling airport users from a Member State treatment comparable to that granted by the Member States to suppliers of ground handling services and self-handling airport users from that country; or (b) does not, de jure or de facto, grant suppliers of ground handling services and self-handling airport users from a Member State national treatment; or (c) grants suppliers of ground handling services and self-handling airport users from other third countries more favourable treatment than suppliers of ground handling services and self-handling airport users from a Member State; A Member State may wholly or partially suspend the obligations arising from this Directive in respect of suppliers of ground handling services and airport users from that third country, in accordance with Community law. 2. The Member State concerned shall inform the Commission of any withdrawal or suspension of rights or obligations”. Regulation (EU) 2019/712 also lays down that it is a matter of policy and to avoid discrimination between airlines, avoiding favourable treatment in slots, infrastructures and services, administrative procedures and even visas for staff when accessing a country. This is expressly indicated by the aforementioned community norm, in Whereas 9 and 10: “(9) The competitiveness of the Union aviation sector depends on the competitiveness of each part of the aviation value chain and it can only be maintained through a complementary set of policies. The Union should engage in constructive dialogue with third countries in order to find a basis for fair competition. In this respect, effective, proportionate and dissuasive legislation remains necessary in order to maintain conditions conducive to a high level of Union connectivity and to ensure fair competition with third-country air carriers. To that end, the Commission should be entrusted with the power to conduct an investigation and to take measures where necessary. Such measures should be available where practices distorting competition cause injury to Union air carriers. (10) Discrimination might include situations where a Union air carrier is subject to differential treatment without objective justification, in particular differential treatment concerning: the prices of, and access to, ground handling services; airport infrastructure; air navigation services; the allocation of slots;

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