256 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM administrative procedures, such as those for the allocation of visas for foreign carriers’ staff; detailed arrangements for the selling and distribution of air services; or any other ‘doing business issues’, such as burdensome customs clearance procedures or any other unfair practice of financial or operational nature”. In the case of suspicion of an unfair practice, an investigation shall be initiated following a written complaint, and it shall be concluded twenty months, as determined in Regulation (EU) 2019/712, if there is prima facie evidence of the existence of all the following circumstances (Art. 4.1): “(a) a practice distorting competition, adopted by a third country or a third- -country entity; (b) injury or threat of injury to one or more Union air carriers; and (c) a causal link between the alleged practice and the alleged injury or threat of injury. the existence of all the following circumstances: (a) a practice distorting competition, adopted by a third country or a third-country entity; (b) injury or threat of injury to one or more Union air carriers; and (c) a causal link between the alleged practice and the alleged injury or threat of injury”. This regulation also specifies its scope and object of application. Thus, the objective of Regulation (EU) 2019/712 is “the efficient protection – equal for all Union carriers and based on uniform criteria and procedures – against injury or threat of injury to one or more Union air carriers caused by practices distorting competition, adopted by third countries or third-country entities cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, but can rather be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective”. Moreover, according to Art. 2.10 of Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 2008 on common rules for the operation of air services in the Community32, an air carrier is “an undertaking with a valid operating license or equivalent”. 32 Official Journal of the European Union L 293/ 3, of 31 October 2008. Available in: https://eur-lex.europa. eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32008R1008&from=ES (Consulted 20 on June 2019).
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