The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 is working to re-launch a regulation that allows the Government to cap the prices of certain services or products during an emergency, according to sources from the department told Europa Press.
The intention of the team led by Pablo Bustinduy is to prevent abuses against consumers, such as those that, according to the ministry, could have occurred in alternative means of transport after the railway accident registered in the Toledo town of Urda, and as happened in other tragedies, including those of Adamuz (Córdoba) and the DANA of Valencia.
The precedent of the royal decree-law approved in February
This same year, on February 10, after the railway accident in Andalusia, the Council of Ministers approved a royal decree-law drafted by Consumer Affairs to incorporate a maximum price limit in emergency situations that exceptionally altered supply and demand.
The regulation stipulated that the price of a service or product could not be higher than the maximum price registered in the 30 calendar days prior to the start of the emergency. In addition, it introduced an additional containment mechanism, so that if that maximum price had been more than 50% higher than the average price for the same period, the reference would become the average price of the 30 days plus that 50%.
Congress rejected the validation two weeks later
That royal decree-law was rejected two weeks later, on February 26, in the Congress of Deputies, when the Popular Party (PP), Vox and Junts voted against its validation.
After that vote, Pablo Bustinduy stated that “the right and the far-right have once again agreed to vote against the rights of Spanish citizens”. The minister then added that, “the next time that, in an emergency situation, there are multinationals that take advantage of people's need and vulnerability to profit without limit and with impunity, they should remember that PP, Vox and Junts made it possible with their votes”.
Price increase detected after the Urda accident
To prevent this situation from happening again and to respond to possible abuses that, according to Consumer Affairs, could be occurring these days after the railway tragedy in Urda, the ministry is already working to recover the regulation.
In fact, since last Wednesday, the day of the accident, the department has detected a “generalized increase” in prices for alternative transport to the train, such as plane tickets, and since then it has also been monitoring the prices of other means of transport.
In parallel, Consumer Affairs is preparing a royal decree-law that modifies the consolidated text of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users to empower the Government to act in these emergency situations on an extraordinary basis, when they exceptionally alter supply and demand and do not respond to an increase in costs for companies.