EU COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY IN THE TOURISM SECTOR 35 subjected to stringent transparency and fairness obligations under the Platform- -to-Business regulation60. The regulation, expected to benefit “hotels using booking platforms”61 among others, is set to take full effect on 12 July 202062. 3. EVOLUTION OF MARKET DEFINITION “Relevant market” is a competition law term, in which the market of a sold product is defined by determining its substitutes within a certain geographical scope. In practical terms, products and services are in the same product market if they are substitutable in terms of characteristics, intended use and price. Substitutability means being an alternative for the buyer: a Porsche Cayenne and a Fiat 500 can both be used to drive on highways, but for buyers with a limited budget, the Porsche is out of reach63. It comprises relevant product64 and geographic65 markets. The price-based Small-But-Significant-Non-Transitory Increase-in-Price Test (“the SSNIP-test”) is currently the main tool to measure substitutability – a central component of market definition66. However, digital evolution makes it all the more challenging to define relevant markets. Online intermediaries, including online booking platforms, are typical examples of two-sided or multi-sided markets, requiring particular attention under competition law67. Since platforms have customers on two or more sides, 60 Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services, OJ L 186, 11.07.2019, pp. 57-79; hereinafter: “Platform-to-Business Regulation”). 61 EC Press Release, Digital Single Market: EU negotiators agree to set up new European rules to improve fairness of online platforms’ trading practices, 14.02.2019, available at: https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-1168_ en.htm. 62 Platform-to-Business Regulation, supra note 60, Article 19. 63 In the 1980s, late Professor Guy Sautter of Strasbourg University would quote an eminent French political thinker who had rightfully remarked: “Dans une démocratie, tout le monde a le droit de loger au Ritz”. 64 “A relevant product market comprises all those products and/or services which are regarded as interchangeable or substitutable by the consumer, by reason of the products’ characteristics, their prices and their intended use”, see: Commission Notice on the definition of relevant market for the purposes of Community competition law (97/C 372/03), (Hereinafter: “EC Market Definition Notice”), para. 7. 65 “The relevant geographic market comprises the area in which the undertakings concerned are involved in the supply and demand of products or services, in which the conditions of competition are sufficiently homogeneous and which can be distinguished from neighbouring areas because the conditions of competition are appreciably different in those areas”, EC Market Definition Notice, para. 8. 66 EC Market Definition Notice, paras. 15-23. 67 M. Colangelo, Parity Clauses and Competition Law in Digital Marketplaces, supra note 53, p. 3.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==