326 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE enterprises4 as any economic organisation aimed at the marketing, production, intermediation and management of services that form the offer with the corresponding public control due to the protection of general interests. The aim is to regulate the market as a whole and the requirements for participation, in the belief that such an institutional initiative would allow for a better match between supply and demand and greater protection of consumer expectations. This last idea could be debated at length because one may wonder whether the administrative activity brings real benefits or only leads to bureaucratic burdens. However, there is no sign of this strategy being watered-down. The Code has been part of a complex regulatory framework ever since article 117 of the Constitution was amended by Constitutional Law No 3 of 2001 and, in particular, the tourism sector became a matter of exclusive regional competence; therefore, only the regions can regulate activities from an administrative point of view. Thus, many of the Code’s provisions for public intervention were declared constitutionally illegitimate due to the violation of the exclusive sphere of regional intervention5. For instance, the Code had reorganised the control of accommodation facilities6 and, since these businesses are conditioned by administrative intervention, article 16 had provided for a simplified procedure for access to their operation. Now, based on their territorial specificity, the regions define these aspects, just as it is entrusted to them by the regulation of the administrative procedures on the start and development of the economic function. Nevertheless, regional legislation cannot tighten up the administrative regime as that would be contrary to the demands for simplification made at the Community level by Directive 2006/123/EC, implemented by Italy by Law No 59 of 2010. A similar fate has befallen travel agencies7 following a decision of the Constitutional Court8, with the regions being in charge of the relevant regime, conforming to the principles of Directive 2006/123 and providing for 4 See Mussoni, Sostegni e incentivi alle imprese turistiche, in Aa. Vv. Evoluzione e prospettive della legislazione sul turismo, Gola (ed.), Rimini, 2002, 161 et seq.; Vuillermoz, La disciplina dell’Unione europea in materia di aiuti di Stato applicata al settore turistico - ricreativo, in Riv. it. dir. tur., 2011, 27 et seq.; Cecchetti, La disciplina dell’impresa turistica, in Aa. Vv., Diritto pubblico del turismo, Gola & Groppi (eds.), Rimini, 2005, 158 et seq. 5 See Constitutional Court 5 April 2012, no. 80, in Giur. it. rep., 2012. 6 See De Nardis, Profili pubblicistici delle strutture ricettive, delle agenzie di viaggio e turismo e delle professioni turistiche: problemi e prospettive (nelle regioni ordinarie), in Aa. Vv., Tourismo. Diritto e diritti, Degrassi & V. Franceschelli (eds.), Milano, 2010, 195 et seq. 7 See Righi, Le autorizzazioni per l’esercizio dell’attività di agenzia di viaggio: orientamento e principi comunitari, in Riv. it. dir. pubbl. com., 1995, 1412 et seq.; Bonaretti & Manuzzi, Il contratto di viaggio turistico e le agenzie di viaggio, ed. II, Rimini, 1997, 54 et seq.; G. Mor, La Corte, la legge regionale e l’impresa: il caso delle agenzie di viaggio, in Le reg., 1999, 319 et seq. 8 See Constitutional Court 5 April 2012, no. 80, cit.
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