Competition Law in Tourism

ELECTRONIC ARBITRATION AS A MEANS OF RESOLVING TOURIST DISPUTES 557 of one or more arbitrators those issues that have arisen or may come to arise in a specific legal relationship of consumption, whether contractual or not. This agreement must be in writing (article 9 of Law 60/2003) and its existence and acceptance must be documented. The form of the arbitration agreement is not a requirement ad solemnitatem but ad probationem, thereby being able to use any technological support that makes it possible to accredit in a reliable way the consent of both parties to settle the conflict by this means, although it is advisable to use an electronic signature (Article 53 RD 231/2008) or a trusted third party system, as per Article 25 of the Law on Information Society and Electronic Commerce Services, which establishes the possibility for the parties to agree that a third party files on magnetic media the declarations of intent that make up the electronic contracts, as well as recording the date and time when such communications have taken place. The initiation of the arbitration procedure28 takes place when the consumer or user who feels his rights have been violated, either personally or through his associations, presents a request before the corresponding Consumer Arbitration Board. This request, which may be accompanied by as much evidence as possible, may be made in writing (in which case it must be submitted alongside the accompanying documentation, in duplicate), by electronic means or by any other means that allows a record to be made and have its authenticity verified. Similarly, it is necessary that the application meets the requirements of Article 34 RD 231/2008; otherwise, the secretary of the Consumer Arbitration Board will request the claimant to rectify it within a period of no more than fifteen days, followed by the warning that, if the indicated stipulations are not followed, it will be considered withdrawn and the proceedings will be archived. To this end, the Consumer Arbitration Boards shall have standardised models to at least facilitate the submission of the request, its reply and the acceptance of arbitration, in the case of a company that does not adhere to the Consumer Arbitration System. Once the territorial competence of the Consumer Arbitration Board has been determined, the Chairman shall make a decision on the admissibility of the request for arbitration for processing: if he does not see grounds for inadmissibility and there is evidence of the existence of a valid arbitration 28 Arbitration procedure that will conform to the principles of hearing, contradiction, equality between the parties and gratuity. In addition, all (arbitrators, mediators, parties and those who provide services in the Consumer Arbitration Boards) will have to keep confidential the information of which they become aware in the course of this procedure.

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