MONOPOLIES AND MERGERS Citation, commencement and interpretation 1 1 This Order may be cited as the Foreign Package Holidays (Tour Operators and Travel Agents) Order 1998 and shall come into force on 16th November 1998. 2 In this Order— “accommodation” means the provision of a place to sleep, including the provision of a site for the erection of a tent or a parking place for a caravan, mobile home or other similar vehicle, but does not include the provision of sleeping accommodation in a means of transport unless that accommodation represents a substantial proportion of the accommodation for the holiday; “foreign package holiday” means services, accommodation and facilities provided under a contract, made within the United Kingdom, by a tour operator for a holiday outside the United Kingdom provided transport to or from the United Kingdom and accommodation outside the United Kingdom (whether or not for the duration of the holiday) are included; “inducement” means a benefit, whether pecuniary or not, offered by a travel agent as an incentive to acquire a foreign package holiday through him; “tour operator” means a person who, otherwise than occasionally, organises foreign package holidays and supplies or offers them for supply, whether directly or through a travel agent; “travel agent” means a person who supplies or offers for supply a foreign package holiday put together by a tour operator; and “travel insurance” means any policy of insurance against the risks to any person arising during or in connection with a foreign package holiday. Price reductions and travel insurance 2 It shall be unlawful for a travel agent or a tour operator (where the tour operator and a travel agent are interconnected bodies corporate and when the tour operator is supplying or offering to supply foreign package holidays directly to the public or any class of persons) to discriminate either in respect of the price charged for a foreign package holiday or by requiring payment of an additional charge against a person who does not acquire travel insurance in respect of that holiday from that travel agent or, as the case may be, tour operator. “Most favoured customer” agreements and related conduct 3 It shall be unlawful for a tour operator to make or carry out an agreement (whenever made) with a travel agent which: a imposes any restriction, whether as to charges or other terms or conditions or otherwise, in respect of the supply or offer of supply by the travel agent of foreign package holidays of another tour operator; or b requires a travel agent, when supplying or offering to supply foreign package holidays of that operator, to offer inducements at least equal in value to or marginally less in value than the inducements which the travel agent applies when supplying or offering to supply the foreign package holidays of another tour operator. 4 It shall be unlawful for a tour operator to withhold or threaten to withhold supplies of foreign package holidays from, or to discriminate in respect of the supply of foreign package holidays to, a travel agent who does not, or does not propose to, offer inducements at least equal in value to or marginally less in value than the inducements which the travel agent applies, or proposes to apply, when supplying or offering to supply the foreign package holidays of another tour operator. Registrable agreements 5 This Order shall not apply in respect of an agreement in so far as it is, or if made would be, an agreement to which the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1976 applies or, as the case may be, would apply. Kim Howells, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Competition and Consumer Affairs Department of Trade and industry 7th August 1998