“The provisions relating to the sale of tickets for entertainment services introduced by law 232/16, as further amended by law 145/18, concern both the provision of the entertainment service itself (for example the obligation to name tickets for events of a certain size) and other related services, including the online sale and resale of such tickets, with the aim of preventing tax evasion, but also of protecting consumers. In this context, the Commission notes that most of the technical standards in question aim to ensure that online sales and resale services comply with the obligation to impose the tax seal as part of a named ticketing system for the determination of the tax due. As regards other requirements concerning information society services not related to taxation, the Commission notes that the country of origin principle applies to the cross-border provision of online ticketing services in Italy by providers established in other Member States. the origin referred to in Article 3 of Directive 2000/31/EC. The application of the requirements in force in Italy to such cross-border providers would therefore be contrary to the aforementioned Directive, unless a derogation is requested under Article 3(4) of the same Directive for the measures taken in respect of a specific service of the cross-border information society. In this regard, the Court of Justice has recently clarified that this exception cannot apply to measures of a general and abstract nature concerning a category of certain information society services described in general terms, and applicable without distinction to any provider of that category of services. services". This is what the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services explained, Thierry breton, responding to the question presented last November by Brando Benifei (S&D) which called for fair conditions for the competition of Italian amusement parks on the European market.
Here is the text of the question:
“In Italy, theme and water parks issue 20 million tickets a year through automated ticket offices, in accordance with the Ministerial Decree 13/7/2000. The application regulation provides that the software and the entire sales process through online portals are subjected to a suitability procedure by the Revenue Agency, with a maximum sales limit of 10 tickets per customer. The large international portals would have to face the complex suitability verification required only by Italy, unlike all other European countries, as well as the restrictions that severely limit sales to an audience made up of families and groups. Therefore, unlike European competitors, it is impossible for Italian amusement parks to interface with international platforms by making sales in real time and with dynamic prices and to compete on equal terms with their European colleagues; this causes significant economic damage.
Can the Commission answer the following questions:
- Do you think it is appropriate to highlight the excess of regulation by the Italian State on the topic of automated ticket offices, the detailed regulation of which hinders the competition of Italian amusement parks on the European market?
- Do you think it is appropriate to eliminate the regulatory barriers that prevent an international online marketing and sales system from being connected, without further approval, to platforms already approved by Italian law?”.
