Tourism Law in Europe

154 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE Supreme Administrative Court upheld the judgement in 20198. Nowadays the road transport market is healthily competitive and as a result, the ticket pricing of transport on both road and railway has been adjusted accordingly. Operating a taxi business requires a license according to chapter 2 of the Act on Transport Services. With the law reform of 2017, taxi traffic in Finland was opened to competition for the first time and the entry of car brokerage services (Uber, Bolt, Lyft, etc.) into the market was allowed. Before 2017, one could be fined for driving Uber rides for profit, as the amount of taxis was limited and new drivers as well as companies needed permits on top of the license. The reform has been quite controversial and its consequences i.e., the entry of more inexperienced drivers and free pricing have sparked a debate on the success of the reform. Indeed, several amendments have been made to the legislation since 2017, all of which aim to provide consumers accessible information on the prices and improve the recognisability of taxi cars. Providing rental cars does not require any specific licenses apart of the ordinary bureaucracy related to establishing a business in Finland. The sharing economy has made it more accessible for private persons to lease their cars for a shorter period through different platforms, but it is doubtful that this sort of private entrepreneurship would replace a professional car rental service anytime soon. 3.3. Waterways While famously being a land of the thousand lakes, Finland has 6,300 km of maritime coastline excluding the islands of the Finnish archipelago. There are smaller ferries connecting the archipelago to the mainland operating all year round. The operators are often smaller independent companies or owned by local counties and councils. International travel is covered by several companies operating larger ferries from Helsinki and Turku to Tallin, St Petersburg and Stockholm via Åland Isles with departures daily. Some ferry lines operate passenger routes to Latvia, Poland and Germany as well. While providing passenger transport at sea or waterways does not require a separate permit, the operator must comply with all the regulations set forth in chapters 9 to 11 in the Act on Transport Services. These apply to all operators regardless of their size. 8 KHO 2019:98.

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