4 by controlling the transactions carried out on the given platform, while the contracts are concluded directly by the platform, or their conclusion is at least demonstrably mediated by the platform. Such intermediary platforms achieve their income exclusively or at least predominantly through commissions from concluded contracts (Airbnb, booking.com, etc.). The role of the platform as the intermediary is to facilitate mutual transactions between providers and service users, but it is not excluded that relevant services are also provided by the platforms themselves.13 Platforms enable customers to conclude contracts for the supply of services with suppliers within a digital environment controlled by the platform operator or they enable suppliers to place advertisements within a digital environment controlled by the platform operator which can be browsed by customers in order to contact suppliers and to conclude a contract outside the platform (e.g. Tripadvisor redirecting to the platform booking.com); 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. 13 Novotná and Hulmák, 2020, p. 23.
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