694 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM 1. INTRODUCTION Digital platforms have brought about significant changes to the competitive landscape of many sectors. The scope and intensity of such changes are usually of a disruptive nature, because they have the potential to create new markets and reshape existing ones2. Supply of touristic accommodation in Spain traditionally took the form of dedicated facilities, like hotels or touristic apartments. The high demand for touristic accommodation, especially in peak seasons, also gave room for occasional rentals of residential properties. The fact that the owners were not professionals, as well as the absence of consolidated marketplaces for such rentals, limited their market significance. Traditional platforms for these kinds of rentals, such as real estate agencies, written newspapers or classified advertising websites, usually have a limited local outreach and do not intermediate in the transactions between owners and users. The irruption of new digital platforms had a rapid and profound impact on the short-term accommodation market. The success of new digital platforms was linked to the fact that they operated transnationally in significant economies of scale; intermediated in the transactions, offering contractual security; and established decentralisedmechanisms to certify quality.This facilitated individual users and owners access to large marketplaces and alleviated traditional problems of information asymmetry. In a context where touristic demand was rapidly growing in Spain3, supply of touristic accommodation by non-professional owners rose exponentially4. As popularity of digital accommodation platforms increased, traditional short-term accommodation suppliers voiced concerns about the lack of “fairness” of non-professional suppliers and began lobbying for more control by public authorities5. In 2013, an amendment to the national law on accommodation rentals transferred powers to Spanish regions to be able to regulate short-term housing rentals. A wave of regional regulations followed, sometimes incorporating 2 OECD (2015) & CNMC (2016). 3 The number of visitors in Spain increased from 57.4 million in 2012 to 82.7 million in 2018. 4 CNMC (2018a). 5 For example, on 17 June 2014, the association of touristic operators Unión Empresarial por la Promoción Turística de Madrid warned against permissive regulation of short-term housing rentals in Madrid. According to them, unfair competition from this kind of rentals would destroy more than 3,000 jobs. Available at https://www. hosteltur.com/158850_alquiler-vacacional-madrid-cuidado-efecto-llamada-regulacion-permisiva.html.
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