192 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE 201561, the professional competence required for exercising the activity of travel and tourism operators was abolished. It is now sufficient to have professional civil liability and a financial guarantee. The list of criteria to be fulfilled has therefore been reduced since 1 January 2016. For professionals who are not established in a Member State of the European Union or in another State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area and who sell or offer for sale the service providers mentioned at Article L. 211-1 or who direct these activities to France shall be required to provide the guarantee against insolvency in accordance with Article L. 211-18. 1) Financial Guarantee Protecting the client: The challenge of the financial guarantee is to be sufficient and specifically for the reimbursement of funds received for tourist packages and services listed in Article L. 211-1 of the Tourism Code. This idea was set out in the parliamentary work on the of the 1937 Legal Act on travel agents: it was intended to protect the tourist against unscrupulous travel agents in the exercise of their activity. The financial guarantee is the result of a written undertaking bond to provide a guarantee: by a collective guarantee body with legal personality, by means of a guarantee fund set up for this purpose; by a credit institution or an insurance company authorised to give a financial guarantee; or by a group of associations or non-profit organizations which have been specifically authorised by an order of the Minister in charge of tourism and with a sufficient solidarity fund62. Collective guarantee body: The most significant example of a collective guarantee body is apparently the Professional Association of Tourism Solidarity, called Association professionnelle de solidarité du tourisme (APST). It is an association governed by the Legal Act of 1901, it brings together natural and legal persons involved in the tourism sector as referred to in Title I of Book II of the Tourism Code63. 61 Ordinance No. 2015-1682 of 17 Dec. 2015 on the simplification of certain prior authorization and declaration regimes for companies and professionals, OJFR of 18 Dec. 2015, p. 23339. 62 French Tourism Code, art. R. 211-26. 63 Art. 1, statutes of the Professional Association of Tourism Solidarity approved by the AGE of 18 Feb. 2010.
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