30 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM the world”29. Besides, sustainability has been elevated to the core of the new Commission agenda, and every Commissioner will have to integrate it within their policy areas30 – competition will be no exception31, although this development raises many practical questions32. Finally, in the coming years, the EU will be “striving for digital leadership”33, which should happen under the leadership of Ms. Vestager, designated as the Commission’s Executive Vice-President for a Europe fit for the Digital Age. This view is supported by the European Council34. These overarching developments will affect competition policy, which, in turn, will have a spill-over effect on the law-enforcement process, including in the tourism sector. The main question is how and that will be discussed, to the extent possible, throughout this contribution. 2. TOURISM IN THE EU: MAPPING THE KEY ACTORS Full tourist experience involves travelling to and from and staying at the destination35, preceded by the preliminary step of booking the desired travel option. Various actors provide tourism services separately, or in an integrated way, offering “one-stop shop” to their customers. The industry, long dominated by traditional actors, has undergone remarkable changes in the last decade. Digitalisation has altered both tourism supply and demand, undermining the market power of certain incumbents while generating new ones. In order to 29 Ursula von der Leyen, President-elect of the European Commission – Mission Letter to Margrethe Vestager (10.09.2019), available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/mission-letter-margrethe-vestager_ 2019_en.pdf. 30 Ibid. p. 2. Sustainability is a priority for the Council as well (see, e.g. Finland’s Presidency Programme Presidency of the Council of the European Union 1 July – 31 December 2019, “Sustainable Europe – Sustainable Future”. 31 The European Parliament goes so far as to explicitly urge the Commission “to allow exemptions from competition rules to facilitate cooperation, both horizontally and vertically, in the context of sustainability initiatives”; see: European Parliament resolution of 31 January 2019 on the Annual Report on Competition Policy (2018/2102(INI), point 78, available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2019-0062_ EN.pdf ). 32 See, e.g., Simon Holmes, Climate Change, Sustainability and Competition Law, https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/ sites/files/oxlaw/simon_holmes.pdf; Thomas Lubbig, Sustainable Development and Competition Policy, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, 2013, Vol. 4, No. 1. 33 Mission Letter to Margrethe Vestager, supra note 29, p. 4. 34 Namely, the European Council supports “updating our European competition framework to new technological and global market developments”; see: European Council Conclusions, 20.06.2019, available at: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/39922/20-21-euco-final-conclusions-en.pdf. 35 OECD, Glossary of Statistical Terms, https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=2725.
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