Competition Law in Tourism

THE ESSENTIALITY OF A LARGE HAND LUGGAGE 377 In fact, Article 33 states in paragraph 1 that in the contract concluded between the consumer and the professional, clauses that, despite good faith, determine a significant imbalance of rights and obligations arising from the contract are considered unfair to the consumer. However, it should be noted that the asymmetry which must be assessed should not adhere to the economic content of the contract, therefore to the economic convenience of the same in relation to which the legislator has no interest in interfering, but rather in an imbalance in terms of rights. It is Article 34 in paragraph 2 which clearly specifies that the evaluation of the unfair impact of the clause does not concern the determination of the object of the contract, nor the adequacy of the consideration of goods and services, provided that these elements are clearly identified and comprehensible52. Therefore, for the cases in question, if the large hand luggage were considered an essential element of the air carrier’s transfer service (as AGCM does), separating the price of said service from the basic (or standard) rate, then rendering a service for which it has already been paid, would most certainly generate an imbalance between professional and consumer, since the object and the consideration of the service would not be clear or easily understandable, and all this independently of the principle of tariff freedom due to the carrier. In this specific case, the carrier reserves the right to resell a right a passenger has already purchased at the time of payment of the trip, without providing any additional information to the passenger themselves. For the cases outlined in this paper, even if the information regarding the price of the trip (without luggage) was complete, clear and transparent from the first contact with the ticket sales site, and was therefore easily comparable with competing operators (as established by TAR), the average consumer would still not be informed about the essentiality of the transfer service of large hand baggage with respect to the main transfer service. The asymmetry perpetrated is significant because, although apparently economic, it pertains to the rights and not to the economic convenience of the deal (in this case, the flight). This is because it concerns the content of the purchased consideration, of which the traveller is unable to assess the economic unsuitability. 52 On the interconnection between the regulatory profile and the economic profile, therefore the difficulty in separating the two plans, see: G. Cian, Il nuovo capo XIV-bis (titolo II, libro IV) del codice civile, sulla disciplina dei contratti con il consumatore (The new chapter XIV-bis (title II, book IV) of the Civil Code, on the Regulation of contracts with the consumer), in Studium iuris, 1996, p. 379.

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