664 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM I. TOWARDS THE CONFIGURATION OF A NEW ACCOMMODATION MODALITY I.1. Consideration of tourist apartments: a legal necessity As a result of the strengthening of new technologies within the tourism field, tourist apartments became more and more popular as an accommodation modality, in Spain as well as worldwide. While it is true that it is a crucial development phenomenon of the last decade, it is important to remember that its legal configuration is expressed in the first Spanish touristic regulations. Nevertheless, this figure is modernised today, and according to Roca Fernández-Castanys, “The real innovation lies in the means of its commercialisation: through the use of ICTs (known as “peer to peer” platforms P2P), which means a universalisation of the offer with a remarkable economy for the transactional costs (by the removal of the intermediaries), as well as an increment of the reliability of the users through the settlement of information, confirmation, booking and secure and fast payment instruments”2. Indeed, it is through the use of ICTs that this kind of accommodation “has reached such a relevance due to its economic and touristic impact, which has led to reconsider its legal treatment”3. Public and institutional recognition of the ever more significant increase of the use of private accommodation for tourism has appeared for the first time in the regulations about the National and Comprehensive Tourism Plan (PNIT in Spanish) from 2012 to 20154, which also detected the necessity and proposed the amendment to the Urban Leases Act (LAU in Spanish), in order to enable the specific ordination of these establishments. The convenience of regulating the touristic use of conventional accommodation relies on two basic necessities: on the one hand, the need of legalising an activity 2 See ROCA FERNÁNDEZ-CASTANYS, M. L. (2017) “¿Matando a la gallina de los huevos de oro?: Algunos apuntes sobre la nueva regulación de las viviendas de uso turístico (especial referencia al caso andaluz)” in Revista Internacional de Derecho del Turismo, No. 2, p. 2. 3 See CUSCÓ PUIGDELLÍVOL, E. & FONT GAROLERA, J. (2015). “Nuevas formas de alojamiento turístico: comercialización, localización y regulación de las viviendas de uso turístico en Cataluña”. Biblio 3W Revista Bibliográfica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Barcelona, vol XX, No. 1.134, when affirming “(…) the use of ICT reduces the product promotion and communication costs, since the client can select the information choose the property and pay for it”, & GUILLÉN NAVARRO, N. A. (2015) “La vivienda de uso turístico y su incidencia en el panorama normativo español”. Revista Aragonesa de Administración Pública, No. 45-46, p. 102. 4 See SECRETARÍA DE ESTADO DE TURISMO, Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo (2011). “Plan Nacional e Integral de Turismo 2012-2015”. About the evolution of the tourism policy: PÉREZ GUERRA, R. (2014). “La intervención administrativa en el sector turístico español: La política turística”, Revista Aragonesa de Administración Pública, No. 43-44, pp. 396 – 413; & GUILLÉN NAVARRO, N. A. (2015). “La vivienda…, op. cit., p. 115.
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