Airlines and festivals: Garzón launches to fine companies after a year of inaction in the Ministry

Change of direction in the Government's Consumption policy. The acting minister, Alberto Garzón, is now launching to fine companies that commit fraud, when more than a year has passed since his department acquired the powers to do so, in May 2022.

In just two days, the Ministry has announced the opening of a disciplinary file against several companies. First, to an events and festivals company. Specifically, to DQG Norte AIE, organizer of the Reggaeton Beach Festival, which is held in more than a dozen Spanish cities. And later, to various low-cost airlines including Ryanair, Vueling, Easyjet and Volotea, among others.

In the first case, Consumption has initiated disciplinary proceedings because the company includes as a mandatory clause the express prohibition of entry to the festival site with food or drink from abroad, and attendees may be registered and, where appropriate, denied entry for that reason.. In addition, it investigates the payment system through cashless bracelets, which avoid payment in cash and limits the return to less than two euros, cases that could constitute infractions as they are considered abusive clauses.

In the case of low-cost airlines, the Ministry has opened proceedings against several companies for charging extra costs for hand luggage carried in the cabin and for other services that were traditionally included in the ticket price, such as reserving the seat next to another passenger in the case of minors or dependent persons. Consumption believes that these practices allow companies to offer their advertising at very competitive prices and better position themselves in Internet search engines, but the price that the consumer ultimately pays ends up being higher.

The Ministry of Consumption has the powers to open this type of files to companies and sanction them for more than a year. Specifically, since May 2022, when the General State Administration acquired sanctioning capacity for the first time in history in terms of consumption, since until then the autonomous communities had it, which made it impossible to sanction massive fraud such as Dieselgate scandal.

However, it was not until January of this year when Garzón presented the General Sub-directorate of Inspection and Sanctioning Procedure and until last May when he activated the legal and operational machinery to develop the sanctioning mechanism.

Ministry sources consulted by ELMUNDO justify the inaction so far because the process has not been “easy or fast”. But from the Facua consumer association, which has been filing complaints against Garzón for years, they affirm that the minister “has been able to detect a multitude of frauds since the legislature began and it has not been until now, when he is in office, when he has announced the opening of several files in two days in a row”. “Change the chip when he leaves”, they settle.

Companies can claim

Sources familiar with the administrative procedure explain that with the opening of these sanctioning files, what the Ministry has done is inform the companies that, after opening an investigation, it has confirmed the indications of infringement and is going to proceed to impose the corresponding fines.

Now, the companies have two options: admit the breach and pay the sanction imposed or open a process of allegations. If the interested parties do not present allegations or these are insufficient to refute the infraction, the Ministry will impose the sanction provided for in the file.

The same sources anticipate that the procedure will be more complex with the airlines because, in their case, the fine must be applied with confiscation of illicit profit and, for this, the first thing is to require documentation and accounts from the companies. Although the regulations also contemplate that the illicit benefit will be calculated with estimative criteria when it cannot be determined exactly.

As established by the current regulatory framework, the sanctions provided for these infractions can be considered as serious or very serious infractions, and be penalized with fines of between 10,001 and 100,000 euros, in the case of serious ones, and between 100,001 and 1,000,000 euros. , in the case of very serious. In addition, if the illicit benefit obtained from the infringing practices exceeded said amounts, the sanctions could reach up to between four and six times the illicit benefit obtained, for serious infractions, and between six and eight times the illicit benefit obtained, in the case of the very serious.