44 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM so-called “catchment areas” of airports’ substitutability120. Specific circumstances, such as is the case with Germany and Austria, allow a slightly broader approach than just national, due to convergence of these countries’ competitive structure121. Namely, they can be regarded as one market because of the language spoken, similar customer preferences and low price differences122; the exact delineation was, however, left open by the Commission. Finally, some product markets (e.g. business travel services) deviate from this national character; thus, their geographic market can be considered at least EEA-wide, if not global. The geographic market definition of commercial affiliate programmes would most likely be global, but this was too left open by the Commission123. 3.3. Outlook The above overview demonstrates that the general competition law rules on market definition extend to the tourism sector as well. This preliminary exercise is more straightforward in some tourism subsegments than in others. Digitalisation, inter alia due to two- or multi-sided character of online platforms, poses a particular challenge that is going to be under the radar for the foreseeable future. The expert panel instituted by the European Commission suggested that, in the digital world, less emphasis should be put on the analysis of market definition, while theories of harm and identification of anticompetitive strategies mandate more focus124. The wind of change is blowing, although its precise direction remains to be defined. It is not surprising that the European Commission announced its upcoming review of the Market Definition Notice125. 120 For example, the Brussels Zaventem airport, the Brussels-South Charleroi airport and the Dutch Schiphol airport could be considered as resorting in the same catchment area for certain flights. 121 Case No COMP/M.4600 – TUI / FIRST CHOICE (2007), para. 36. 122 Ibid., para. 37. 123 Case M.9005 – Booking Holdings / Hotelscombined (2018), para. 78. 124 See: Crémer Report, supra note 71, pp. 2-3. See also: various recent reports offering various avenues of market definition: The Joint memorandum of the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg competition authorities on challenges faced by competition authorities in a digital world, 10.10.2019, available at: https://www.belgiancompetition.be/en/ about-us/publications/joint-memorandum-belgian-dutch-and-luxembourg-competition-authorities; Jason Furman et al, Unlocking digital competition – Report of the Digital Competition Expert Panel, March 2019, available at: https:// assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/785547/unlocking_ digital_competition_furman_review_web.pdf; Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi) – Bericht der Kommission Wettbewerbsrecht 4.0 – Ein neuer Wettbewerbsrahmen für die Digitalwirtschaft, September 2019, availableat:https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Publikationen/Wirtschaft/bericht-der-kommission-wettbewerbsrecht -4-0.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4. 125 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2019-2024/vestager/announcements/defining-markets- -new-age_en.
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