Tourism Law in Europe

5 more consistent with consumer protection 15 . According to art. 11 of the framework law n. 217 of 1983, now abrogated, a guide was anyone who, on a professional basis, accompany people or groups in visits to works of art, museums, galleries, illustrating the historical, artistic, monumental, landscape and natural attractions. For this reason, access to the profession was subject to the verification of effective qualification, with qualifying examinations and with the requirement of specific qualifications or attendance of courses. The activity had a specialised content and presupposed an in-depth knowledge of a given cultural and landscape reality. It would have been impossible to demand a comprehensive knowledge of the national heritage, especially in Italy, with its significant wealth and equal variety of monuments. As a result, the validity of the qualifying measure was limited to the region, precluding guides from other EU countries from carrying out this activity in Italy without this qualification. There was no shortage of Court of Justice judgments 16 stating that the Italian rules resulted in an undue restriction on the economic function of the activity, and the national legislator was called upon to amend them. A compromise solution was offered by Article 10, fourth paragraph, of Decree-Law No 4 of 2007; on the one hand, the qualification on a regional basis was confirmed as a precondition for the exercise of the activity of guide, on the other hand, “persons qualified (...) within the framework of the system (...) of the Community country of origin” would have operated “under a regime of free provision without the need for any authorisation or qualification” 17 . Therefore, a guide from another EU Member State could operate in Italy without having to verify their actual knowledge of Italy’s heritage, whereas Italian citizens had to obtain a territorial qualification issued by the regions. In this way, a “reverse discrimination” was created 18 , with an unjustified alteration of market dynamics. 15 See M. La Torre, Il ruolo della guida turistica per la conoscenza del territorio. Profili civilistici , in Riv. it. dir. tur. 2011, no. 3, 8 et seq . 16 See Court of Justice of 26 February 1991, Case C-180/89, Commission v. Italian Republic; Court of Justice of 26 February 1991, Case C-198/89, Commission v. Italian Republic. Italian Republic ; Court of Justice 26 February 1991, in case C - No 198 of 1989, Commission v. Hellenic Republic; Court of Justice 26 February 1991, in case C - no. 154 of 1989, Commission v . French Republic . 17 This was the wording of Article 10 of Decree-Law No 4 of 2007. 18 See Righi, Le professioni turistici , in V. Franceschelli - Morandi, Manuale di diritto del turismo , ed. VI, Torino, 2017, 217 et seq .