COMPETITION AND TOURIST PROTECTION 269 Apart from the critical evaluation of individual measures, this central role in consumer protection deserves positive appreciation, based on the Italian institutional scenario and taking into account the costs and duration of the trials. The main issue in Italian tourism law is to favour a widespread recourse to protection from the courts, and also to defend reasons of limited economic weight. We could discuss the ethical value of such phenomena, but in order to remain in a more circumscribed organisational perspective, due to its structural deficiencies, the Italian judicial system cannot give efficient answers to a large number of actions involving small amounts. Alongside a few hypotheses in which class actions17 have been performed, the work of the Italian Competition Authority (also in its role of support and reinforcement of the courts) should be regarded as positive, as the key to a balanced regulation of the market while avoiding excessive control and interventions from the judiciary. 2. THE SO-CALLED “LARGE HAND LUGGAGE FEE” CHARGED BY SOME AIRLINES One particularly interesting provision on baggage has been adopted by a well- -known Irish airline18. In the company’s online booking system, the basic fee only includes a “small bag” as cabin luggage, while booking larger hand luggage comes with an additional fee. In particular, if they need a larger hand luggage, the passenger has to take advantage of the “priority boarding”, which allows ticket holders to bring a larger hand luggage with them on board (maximum weight 10 kg) by paying an 8 € fee if booking online, or 10 € if they choose the option at a later time. Failure to do so will cause the larger bag to be booked as cabin luggage, and the passenger would be forced to pay a 20 € fine on boarding. The Competition Authority, when notifying the commencement of its action19, stated that “applying (...) a surcharge for the ‘large luggage’ will provide a misleading representation of the real cost of the ticket by removing from the base rate, ex ante a fully predictable and non-incidental or unpredictable charge, 17 See Mancaleoni, Prima vittoria dell’azione di classe italiana: risarcito il danno da vacanza rovinata in Riv. it. dir. tur., 2014, 55 and following. More generally, see A. Giussani, Studi sulle “class action”, Padua, 1996, 32 and following, and from the same author Azioni nel processo civile, Bologna, 2008, 89 and following; C. Consolo – Zuffi, L’azione di classe ex Art. 140 bis del Codice del consumo. Lineamenti processuali, Padua, 2012, 61 and following. 18 See the action taken by the Italian Competition Authority on 31 October 2018, no. 27398, in Boll., no. 41 of 5 November 2018. 19 The notification of commencement of action was issued on 20 September 2018.
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