Competition Challenges in the Accommodation Sharing Economy in Portugal Afonso Ribeiro Café1 1. Notion of the Sharing Economy; 2. Sharing Tourism and Accommodation; 3. Are There Competition Issues in Sharing Accommodation?; 3.1. Is there any violation of par conductio concurrencium principle?The Portuguese case; 3.2. Barriers in national law to reaching an effective competition; 4. Portuguese Alojamento Local Law. 1. NOTION OF THE SHARING ECONOMY In the last 20 years, we have been witnesses to the emergence of a new economic phenomenon, named the sharing economy, also known as collaborative consumption, peer (P2P) economy, the mesh, gig economy and access economy. Although still named the sharing economy, this concept encompasses different kinds of realities and business models2. It is, however, considered an economic model built on the marketing of goods, services, time, space and/or know-how, online technology-based, allowing access to a global market and has enhanced the promotion and marketing of assets on a global scale. Nowadays, it is not possible to have a definition of the sharing economy, which is precise and operative enough to be used as a legal or economic instrument. This conceptual difficulty is due to one of its key characteristics, which is its heterogeneity. There are too many business models, markets and assets involved, which makes it difficult to find a universal definition amongst them all. 1 Lecturer, Faculty of Economics; University of Algarve; Lawyer; afonso.cafe@apc-advogados.pt; apcafe@ualg.pt. 2 Vid. LAGUNA DE PAZ, (2017). “El papel de la regulación en la llamada economía colaborativa”, Revista de Estudios Europeos, n.º 70, julio-diciembre, p. 159.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==