The Business Federation of Territorial Associations of Spanish Travel Agencies (Fetave) and the National Union of Travel Agencies (UNAV) have requested that the Ministry of the Interior immediately halt the application of Royal Decree 933/2021 to travel agencies, after the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Spain this Thursday, considering that certain requirements for collecting and managing traveler data could violate EU regulations.
Both organizations, currently undergoing a merger process, have also called for any regulatory developments or ministerial orders that impose direct obligations on travel agencies to be frozen, and for a working group with the sector to be established to rethink the current model.
The initiative comes after Brussels' decision to initiate infringement proceedings against Spain, deeming the personal data required by the Spanish system from travelers and tourists, including payment and location information, as well as the data retention period and security forces' access conditions to these records, to be disproportionate.
Fetave has emphasized that it was the only Spanish tourism employers' association to formally appeal to the European Commission the compatibility of RD 933/2021 with European Union Law. The federation filed its complaint in January 2023 and, since then, has engaged in various actions with European institutions to express its opposition to this regulation.
According to the two employers' associations, the European Commission's decision confirms the warnings they had been issuing about the "disproportionality," "legal uncertainty," and "practical infeasibility" of several of the obligations that the royal decree imposes on travel agencies.
In particular, UNAV and Fetave have asked the Ministry of the Interior to suspend the application of this regulation to agencies while the European proceedings are resolved, and to review the current system in order to minimize the data that travelers must provide, as they consider it to be an unoperational bureaucratic burden.
They also claim that travel agencies should be excluded from these obligations when they act solely as intermediaries, understanding that the necessary information is already collected by accommodations and vehicle rental companies, given that this royal decree also applies to 'rent a car'.
The president of UNAV and Fetave, César Gutiérrez, has stated that "if the European Commission questions the pillars of RD 933/2021, the Ministry of the Interior must suspend its application to travel agencies and immediately review the regulation".
The organizations have finally reiterated their willingness to collaborate with the Ministry of the Interior to design a regulatory solution that is compatible with European Union Law and that adapts to the real operations and essential needs of the travel agency sector.