THE EUROPEAN UNION AND EUROPEAN STATES’ DEVELOPMENTS 489 4. ITALY Italy had similar behaviours to France. First of all, there was a commitment between Booking.com and the Italian Competition Authority46 to change broad parity clause to narrow clause47. This commitment was concluded by means of the Provvedimento no. 25.422, as of 21 April 2015, and published in the Bolletino settimanale – anno XXV – no. 14, on 27 April 201548. On 29 August 2017, Italy implemented the Annual Act for Market and Competition49, an important legislative development, with a specific article linked to the parity clause in this standard50, Article 1(166) mentions that “it is void any agreement with which the tourist-receptive company is obliged not to practice to the end customers, with any modality and any instrument, prices, terms and any other conditions that are better than those applied by the same company through third parties, independently of the law governing the contract”51. 5. AUSTRIA Similar to France and Italy, Austria implemented a legislative movement to regulate parity clauses. On 30 November 2016, a standard52 amended the Law of Unfair Competition (UWG)53 and the Price Labelling Law (PrAG)54. The first aspects to be analysed are the changes in the UWG, which, as we will see, was amended in three parts55. 46 In Italian, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato. 47 COLANGELO, Margherita. Parity clauses and Competition Law in digital marketplaces: the case of online hotel booking. Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, v. 8, no. 1, 2017, p. 9. 48 Available at http://www.agcm.it/dotcmsDOC/bollettini/14-15.pdf, pp. 5-23. 49 In Italian, Legge annuale per il mercato e la concorrenza, available at https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/ id/2017/08/14/17G00140/sg. 50 LA TORRE, Mariaenza. I contratti di ospitalità. In: FRANCESCHELLI, Vincenzo, & MORANDI, Francesco (org.). Manuale di diritto del turismo. 6. ed. Torino: G. Giappichelli, 2017, p. 317. 51 Art. 1(166): “Any agreement by which the tourist accommodation company undertakes not to offer the final clientele, by any means and means, prices, terms and any other conditions that are better than those practiced by the company itself through third parties, regardless of the law governing the contract, is null and void” (author’s translation). 52 BGBl. I, no. 99/2016, available at https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/BgblAuth/BGBLA_2016_I_99/ BGBLA_2016_I_99.pdfsig. 53 In German, Bundesgesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (UWG), available at https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/ GeltendeFassung/Bundesnormen/10002665/UWG%2c%20Fassung%20vom%2005.03.2019.pdf. 54 In German, Bundesgesetz über die Auszeichnung von Preisen (PrAG), available at https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/ GeltendeFassung/Bundesnormen/10007216/PrAG%2c%20Fassung%20vom%2005.03.2019.pdf. 55 ABLASSER-NEUHUBER, Astrid, & FUSSENEGGER, Gerhard. Austria. In KILPATRICK, Bruce, KOBEL, Pierre, & KËLLEZI, Pranvera (org.). Antitrust analysis of online sales platforms & copyright limitations and exceptions. Cham: Springer, 2018, pp. 112-113.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==