WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao dive schools that lost their PADI status or related commercial benefits since January 2025 solely because they offered courses from competing diving organizations could be allowed to regain those benefits under a proposed order by the Fair Trade Authority Curaçao (FTAC).
The restoration requirement is one of the most significant elements of a draft binding instruction the competition regulator intends to impose on PADI Worldwide.
The measure follows an FTAC investigation into PADI's exclusivity conditions for affiliated dive centers and resorts on Curaçao.
According to the regulator, centers affiliated with PADI can face consequences if they also provide training or certifications from competing organizations. The FTAC has provisionally concluded that such restrictions may violate Curaçao's competition rules.
Under the proposed measure, any dive center that lost its PADI status or associated benefits since January 1, 2025 solely because it offered non-PADI courses would, upon request, have to be given an opportunity to have that status restored.
The dive center would still be required to comply with PADI's other objective and non-discriminatory membership requirements.
The FTAC has not disclosed whether any Curaçao dive schools have actually lost their PADI status under the rule or how many businesses could qualify for restoration.
The regulator is therefore calling on dive operators that believe they have been affected to come forward during the ongoing procedure.
That includes businesses that wanted to offer another organization's courses alongside PADI but decided against doing so because of the restrictions. It also includes operators that lost or were threatened with losing PADI status or benefits, as well as companies that changed their business operations because of the exclusivity requirements.
Affected businesses could potentially be recognized as third-party interested parties in the case and submit their views to the FTAC.
The authority is asking businesses to provide concrete evidence where possible, including correspondence with PADI, agreements or other information demonstrating how the exclusivity conditions affected their operations.
The potential impact extends beyond individual dive schools because the FTAC estimates that PADI accounts for between 80 and 84 percent of diving certifications issued annually on Curaçao.
The authority's preliminary position is that this strong market position, combined with PADI's exclusivity conditions, could make it harder for rival certification organizations to expand on the island.
For dive businesses, PADI membership can also provide substantial commercial advantages, including brand recognition, visibility through the PADI Dive Shop Locator and access to marketing and support programs. That can make abandoning PADI altogether commercially difficult, even for businesses that would like to offer customers a choice of certification systems.
The proposed restoration measure could therefore give affected operators greater freedom to combine PADI courses with programs offered by organizations such as SSI, NAUI or SDI/TDI.
However, the FTAC stressed that the case has not yet been concluded. The document is a draft decision, meaning the authority's findings and proposed measures could still change after PADI and other interested parties have been heard.
PADI, Bahia Apartments & Diving, which filed the original complaint, and other interested parties have until October 30 to respond. The FTAC will issue its final decision after considering those submissions.