The increasingly bitter battle between Spanish retail association Anged and the local government authorities in Catalonia has taken a new twist, with the association taking its case to the European Commission.
Anged claims that the restrictions imposed by the Catalan authorities on new store development are anti-competitive, and has taken its complaint to the Single Market Directorate General.
According to a report in the Cinco Dias newspaper, the association has been forced to take its complaint to the Commission after the Catalan authorities introduced even tighter restrictions on retail development earlier this month.
Anged has already complained to the Commission, two years ago when the Catalan authorities first introduced the law imposing a hefty tax on new hypermarkets, arguing that such a law was anti-competitive.
The Catalan legislation states that the money raised from this tax on hypermarkets will be used to help support smaller retailers, seen by the Barcelona government as most likely to suffer as a result of the arrival of larger stores.
The European Commission recently ruled that this tax could therefore be seen as state aid for the retail sector, and as such forbidden under Community law, the report said. It was this ruling which prompted the recent change in the Catalan regulations, which, rather than scrapping the hypermarket tax, now simply state that the money raised from this imposition can not be used to support other retailers.
This, clearly, was not the answer than Anged and its members wanted to hear, hence the decision to resubmit their complaint to the Commission. They now hope to persuade Single Market Commissioner Mario Monti that the Catalan regulations contravene EU rules on the freedom of movement, and that the tax effectively prevents companies from operating in Catalonia.
A battle which looks set to continue for some time, then, but one which also highlights the vastly different approaches to the retail trade in many EU countries. Some Member States, such as Spain or the UK, have tough regulations restricting new store developments, but the retail sectors in both these countries are very different, with the freedom to open when they want enjoyed by UK stores a far cry from the highly restrictive practices in Spain (and indeed France) when opening hours and even the time of year that stores can run sales is strictly controlled.
Anged may well appeal to the Single Market Commissioner, but the single market is far from being a reality when it comes to the retail sector, and there will be much work ahead for the Commission, it seems.