The Barcelona Court confirms the closure of the Consum Strategic website
The Court of Barcelona has rejected the appeal of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) regarding the closure of the Consum Estrátégic website and has confirmed the ruling of commercial court number 11 which had already given the go-ahead to the closure of this portal, which invited disassociate from the companies that were listed on the Ibex-35 and that abandoned their headquarters in Catalonia as a result of the “campaign of fear” on the occasion of the Process. The Court is thus in favor of Foment del Treball and maintains that this campaign must be classified as a “boycott” and may end up harming competitors for ideological reasons and “unrelated to the efficiency, quality or price of their services” .
The judge’s decision and its repercussions
In 2019, a judge provisionally suspended the website after receiving a complaint from Foment del Treball in which it denounced that the Assembly’s strategy was “contrary to good faith” and that it “falsified” free competition . Now, the Barcelona Court confirms the judge’s decision and ratifies the closure of the portal. In addition, it demands the cessation of the campaign and orders the ANC to refrain from making its material and personal means available to third parties to re-broadcast the campaign.
Harm to competitors
The Barcelona Court considers that the conduct of the ANC is “apt” to harm competitors that are not included in the campaign, not only the companies of the IBEX-35 or the Bernabéu box office but any other that it is not part of the campaign “either because it does not share the ANC’s ideology or because it does not meet the requirements to register” it is not qualified as a “strategic supplier”. In addition, it rejects the ANC’s argument when it points out that the campaign only aims to promote ethical and responsible consumption, and reiterates that the criteria “are not market, efficiency, quality or price but other extraneous and ideological criteria “.
The protection of the right to freedom of enterprise and the market economy
The sentence defends that “with this it aims not only to inform but to induce the resolution of the signed contracts with which they are indicated and to facilitate contracting with others, not because their services are better, nor because they are more efficient but because they assume the postulates that defends the appellant”. In relation to freedom of expression, the Court’s ruling considers a “limitation” of freedom of expression as legitimate and emphasizes that in this case “the legitimate purpose pursued is the protection of the right to freedom of enterprise and the market economy”, rights that, he recalls, are enshrined in article 38 of the Spanish Constitution. In addition, the judgment insists that the campaign had the objective of “producing a serious dysfunction in the market to alter the terms of competition”.
