I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS 1. Object of the contribution The ESHTE – INATEL International Conference took place on October 17 and 18, 2022 in Portugal and has covered a wide range of areas of law and jurisdictions concerning the Tourism sector. Even though traditionally the Competition Law perspective is not a priority, for a broad set of circumstances in the last years its relevance for the tourism sector has been visible. And accordingly, ESTHE’s initiatives have reflected this, notably by including Competition in the Programme of the Conference2. Thus, my presentation summarized the multisided impact of competition law and enforcement with special acuteness for the tourism sector under the title “The sweet & sour taste of tourism and competition law interaction”. Having started with a very brief contextualization of Competition law and its different areas, I focused especially on the period between 2019 and 2022, so as to illustrate with different examples the importance of the awareness of this area of law ideally from a preventive perspective (instead of a reactive one). In this context, reference is made specifically to features of the Portuguese competition framework, as moreover the Competition Act “(also referred to as “CA”)3 expressly provides that not only legal entities, but also natural persons can be held liable for anticompetitive practices and be sanctioned.4 This contribution systematizes the main highlights of the 2022 presentation, while including some more recent examples of the growing relevance of competition law and its advocacy and enforcement in the broad “tourism sector”, notably in Portugal.5 It is widely acknowledged that the tourism sector was severely impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19)6 pandemic and the measures adopted 2 The Competition Law perspective was also addressed by Doctor Bertold Bär Bouyssière specifically on the acute topic of “Environmental Protection Considerations and Article 101 Paragraph 1 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union”. It should be highlighted that already in 2022, ESTHE has published a 724 pages book on “Competition Law and Tourism” which included contributions addressing several general competition law themes, as well as focusing on given jurisdictions such as the Portuguese one. The ebook version is available here https://publications.eshte.pt/dir/ clt/. ISBN – 978.989.9066.02.1. 3 Law Nr. 19/2012, of 8 may as amended (“Competition Act”). 4 Article 73 of the Competition Act. 5 For a recent overview of the Portuguese perspective concerning Tourism Law and Competition, please see pages 417 to 482 of the 2022 ESTHE’s book mentioned above in note 2. 6 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global outbreak of coronavirus – an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Cases of novel coronavirus (nCoV) were first detected in China in December 2019, with the virus spreading rapidly to other countries across the world. 128 MARGARIDA ROSADO DA FONSECA
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==