The same concept is now extended to the online market. To establish a just digital market, numerous new rules have been developed in the Union’s law aimed at ensuring transparent information for all participants. It is always emphasised that the transparency of information on the online market is even more important than on the offline market, not only for consumers7 but also for any business users of Internet platforms.8 The aims of these new rules have remained the same. The fulfilment of transparency requirements has been the required condition for the establishment of equality and balance in contractual relations and for the avoidance of any asymetry of the level of information and the negotiating power of the participants on the digital market. Legal instruments to achieve that goal are basically also the same. However, there are some additional information duties to be fulfilled by the participants on the online market. New unfair business practices are defined and the wording of the existing rules on the responsibility of the providers of online services is proposed to be changed. Yet, significant differences in comparison with the offline internal market are reflected in two main aspects. On the one hand, the majority of the new rules on the transparency requirements involve Internet where various services are offered to consumers and business users by the providers of online marketplaces, the providers of online intermediation services, the providers of online search engines, and others. We speak here of various multisided contractual relations between different participants on the online market where consumers, traders and online platforms take up different roles. Such multisided legal relations call for specific transparent acting, particularly by the platform as the strongest and the most dominant party in such multisided contractual relationship. On the other hand, we also witness a tendency of extending the rules on information requirements from the consumers' to business relationships. These requirements also exist in the contractual relations between platforms and their business users. The aim is to protect business users as the weaker party to the contract, in any legal relationship with platforms (so-called P2B contracts).9 The importance of transparent information is particularly obvious in the context of development of the online tourism services market. Particular attention is paid to the necessity of extending the catalogue of information to be provided to consumers before they make their decisions on the selection of a particular tourism service. Statistics show that there are increasing numbers of consumers, traders and Internet platforms on the online market of tourism services. Tourism is one of the most developed sectors on the online market in the EU and the development of its tourist accomodation sector is very dynamic and fast.10 It is mostly determined by inernet platforms which, in various ways, take part in e-transactions involving tourism services. This is confirmed by the statistical data on very intensive development of e-commerce in the sector of tourism. In 2019 (the year before the COVID-19 pandemic), online purchasing of travel and holiday accommodation ranked second among the most popular categories of goods and services purchased online in the EU (after clothes and sports commodities). Travel and holiday accommodations were ordered by 54 % of all online shoppers.11 The most frequent buyers of travel and holiday accommodation were people aged between 25-54 (57 %).12 In the last few years, we have witnessed an intensive development of short stay accommodations via collaborative or sharing economy platforms. More and more frequently, short-term rentals of private residencies, apartments or houses are booked through platforms. New models of tourism services are developed where not traders but private natural persons take part (consumers, C2C). The EU rules on the protection of consumers in B2C contractual relationships cannot always apply to these new models of tourism services. In 2019, tourists spent more than 554 million nights in accommodations booked via collaborative economy platforms (15.8% more than in 2018). On an average day, around 1.4 million guests spent more than 512 million nights in beds booked via collaborative economy platforms.13 7 See: European Commission Communication: A New Deal for Consumers, Bruxelles, 11/4/2018 COM/2018/183 final, p. 5. 8 See: European Commission Communication: Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market - Opportunities and Challenges for Europe, Brussels, 25/5/2016 COM(2016) 288 final, pp. 6,10. 9 See, for example, Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services (P2B Regulation). 10 From 2005-2019, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU grew by 44 %.The number of nights spent in tourist accommodation in the EU reached (in 2019) 2.9 billion nights. See Eurostat: Tourist Statistics – annual results for the accommodation sector, October, 2020. 11 Of the total number of EU Internet users in 2019, 71% of EU Internet users ordered goods and services online, see Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2020, Use of Internet services, point 5 e-Commerce – categories of goods and services 12 See Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2020, Use of Internet services, point 6 e-Commerce – categories of goods and services. 13 In 2019, the share of short-stay accommodation in the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodation in the EU amounted to 23 %. Eurostat: Tourism statistics – annual results for the accommodation sector
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