{"id":123521,"date":"2016-04-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/competition-council-investigates-a-possible-violation-of-competition-rules-by-travel-agencies\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T17:37:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T15:37:55","slug":"competition-council-investigates-a-possible-violation-of-competition-rules-by-travel-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/competition-council-investigates-a-possible-violation-of-competition-rules-by-travel-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Competition Council investigates a possible violation of competition rules by travel agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The Competition Council has launched its first investigation into the tourism products and travel packages market regarding a potential violation of competition rules by travel agencies, where unannounced inspections were carried out.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The investigation was triggered following information received through an anonymous report registered on the competition whistleblowers&#8217; platform.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The competition authority suspects some travel agencies of coordinating their commercial policies to impose a minimum selling price for tourism products and\/or travel packages and to maintain a status quo in the market, starting from 2013.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The checks primarily targeted charter operators, who often share seats on an aircraft.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Among the agencies targeted by the Competition Council are Paralela 45, Paravion, Mareea, Christian Tour, Perfect Tour, HappyTour, Eurolines, Klever Travel, Europabus, Eximtur, Danubius Travel, and Amarino.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Alin Burcea, owner of the Paralela 45 agency, stated that 10 companies are targeted, and the theme is suspicion of price collusion. The entire suspicion was triggered by a discussion on the &#8220;Infotripisti&#8221; Facebook group.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He specified that there is no agreement of any kind between the agencies.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Unannounced inspections represent a preliminary stage in the investigation procedures of potential anti-competitive behavior. Carrying out these inspections does not represent a pre-judgment by the Competition Council regarding the guilt of the investigated companies or the final outcome of the launched investigation.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>ANAT, together with its members, declares its full availability to clarify the information that prompted the Competition Council&#8217;s inspections. ANAT is prepared to provide additional clarifications regarding the specifics of the activities of tour operator and retail travel agencies in Romania, the European Union, and even outside the borders of the European Union.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<h3>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h3>\n<p><strong>What is the Competition Council investigating?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Council is investigating potential price-fixing and the coordination of commercial policies to impose minimum selling prices for travel packages since 2013.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Which travel agencies are involved in the investigation?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Major agencies such as Paralela 45, Christian Tour, HappyTour, and Eximtur are among the companies where unannounced inspections were conducted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What triggered the investigation?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The probe was initiated following an anonymous tip on a whistleblower platform and discussions on a Facebook group dedicated to travel industry professionals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Competition Council has launched its first investigation into the tourism products and travel packages market regarding a potential violation of competition rules by travel agencies, where unannounced inspections were carried out. The investigation was triggered following information received through an anonymous report registered on the competition whistleblowers&#8217; platform. The competition authority suspects some travel&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":66069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2858],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-123521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism"],"article_style_override":"","post-style":"","post_via":"","post-top-image":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/turism-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123521"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=123521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}