The magistrate of Barcelona’s trading company No. 11 convicted Against the ‘Consumption Strategy’ campaign ANC and he thinks that this actually proves that a boycott of non-independent companies is presumed.. The judge agrees with Foment del Treball in his complaint, coinciding with previous decisions of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) and ordering the definitive shutdown of the search engine and website for companies involved in pro-independence positions. In the sentence to which El Periódico de Catalunya, from the Prensa Ibérica group, has access, the judge says, “The conduct by the ANC has been proven to constitute an act of obstruction in the boycott method.” There is also the possibility of appeal.
In November 2018, a year and a month after the 1-O referendum, the ANC announced the launch of a campaign called ‘Consum estrategic’. According to this, The independence organization, headed by Elisenda Paluzie at the time, thus began compiling a list of companies related to their positions. and invites the public to consume only these. To take advantage of positions favorable to the independence of Catalonia, as they advocated. It then opens a web page with a search engine for sympathetic companies and presents them as alternatives to companies that have “joined the horror campaign.” Confronted with this attempt, the employers’ association Foment del Treball filed a complaint with the courts, considering that the action in question constituted a boycott and unfair competition.
The legal battle started in 2019, and the court in the case accepted the injunctions requested by Foment and ordered the temporary suspension of the ANC website. Before issuing a sentence, CNMC also reviewed the case and censored the ANC campaign, although it decided not to impose any sanctions. “The loss of customers by unrelated companies was a main, conscious and deliberate goal of the campaign, not just a secondary effect of promoting other organizations in the free game of competition,” the asset said.
After the CNMC’s investigations were concluded, the Barcelona commercial court made its decision and decided accordingly. “The behavior exhibited by the ANC went beyond inciting or encouraging discussion or informing consumers,” he says. The decision orders the website’s eventual shutdown, collect the costs of the judicial process from the sovereign body, and veto similar actions in the future.