732 TOURISM LAW IN EUROPE platform that facilitates vacation housing in 81,000 cities in 191 countries worldwide. These intermediary digital platforms open up huge new markets for homeowners, while raising new questions and legal unknowns, as legal problems arise transversally in all branches of law4. In Spain, the vacation rental is conditioned by the following issues: 1) the distribution of legislative powers in matters of tourism; 2) the divergent concept of tourist rental in Spanish law; 3) uneven and changing national jurisprudence; and 4. the COVID-19 crisis. 1. DISTRIBUTION OF COMPETENCES IN THE FIELD OF TOURISM Under the protection of article 148(1)(18) of the Spanish Constitution, the Autonomous Communities can assume competences in matters of tourism. Thus, in Spain, the management and promotion of tourism in the corresponding territory are the responsibility of the territorial entities (Autonomous Communities and local entities). Accordingly, in the case of the Balearic Islands, the management and promotion of tourism are exclusively assumed by the Autonomous Community [art. 10(9) Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands], with tourist vacation rental being regulated by a regional law, Law 6/2017, of 31 July, modifying Law 8/2012, of 19 July, on tourism in the Balearic Islands, regarding the commercialisation of tourist stays in homes. Moreover, the island councils – management bodies with competence in each of the main islands – also have legislative powers in tourism, employing them through the Intervention Plan in Tourism Areas (PIAT – plan de intervención en ámbitos turísticos), supplemented, in its case, by the Insular Territorial Plans (PTI – planes territoriales insulares)5. Therefore, the Spanish legal framework is complex, with actions and initiatives at the state, regional and municipal levels around vacation rentals, to which is added European law setting the main guidelines that also influence tourism. Thus, the European Parliament report “A European Agenda for the collaborative economy”6 was the starting point that confirmed the uncertainties 4 For an extensive analysis of some legal problems in different branches of law, vid. Feliu Álvarez de Sotomayor, S., (Dir.), Plataformas digitales en los alquileres vacacionales, op. cit. 5 Vid. in extenso, J. A. Torres Lana, “Alquiler de viviendas para uso turístico” in Plataformas digitales en los alquileres vacacionales, op. cit., pp. 9-30. 6 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, The Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A European agenda for the collaborative economy (SWD(2016) 184 final.
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