INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW Under regulation (EU) 2019/1150 „online intermediation services’ means services which meet all of the following requirements: (a) they constitute information society services (b) they allow business users to offer goods or services to consumers, with a view to facilitating the initiating of direct transactions between those business users and consumers, irrespective of where those transactions are ultimately concluded; (c) they are provided to business users on the basis of contractual relationships between between the provider of those services and business users which offer goods or services to consumers; Unlike intermediary platforms, information and advisory platforms do not tend to control market transactions. They offer comparisons or other advisory services to customers which identify relevant suppliers of tourist services and which direct customers to those suppliers, their websites or provide contact details; or they enable platform users to provide reviews regarding suppliers, customers, services offered by suppliers, through a reputation system. In such a way they indirectly support creation of market transaction by enabling the search for suitable contractual opportunities and, through the evaluation system, they contribute to the control of the behaviour of the participants and the quality of the service provided (Trivago, Tripadvisor, etc.). Distinction between intermediary and advisory platforms partly represents differentiation between transactional and non- transactional platforms. Online platforms in tourism sector provide for their customers a) the information society service, where they host or transmit content provided by a third party, b) these services are frequently presented as information, advice or intermediaton and may be provided also directly by online platform, c) they may provide the travel service itself. 4. LIABILITY OF ONLINE PLATFORMS The recent study conducted for the needs of European Parliament outlined many sources and types of the liability connected to the functioning of the online platforms.14 The rules of media law, child protection, online piracy, IP 14 Bertolini, Episcopo, Cherciu, 2021, p.86-89.
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