The Contentious Administrative Court number 16 of Barcelona has ruled in favor of the City Council of Arenys de Mar (Maresme) in the appeal filed by the Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona (AGBAR) for the claim of the economic imbalance in the payments of the concessionaire of the municipal water service for the years 2015-2017. According to the estimate made by AGBAR, this claim amounted to 1,267,454.9 euros plus legal interest.
The court ruling says that it "fully dismisses the contentious-administrative appeal" filed by AGBAR after the Arenys de Mar City Council did not accept the statement of accounts for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, nor the initial appeal filed by SOREA, a company in the AGBAR group, concessionaire of the service.
The concessionaire claimed for payments pending exploitation (440,727.5 euros) and for the concept of restoration of economic balance (826,727.4 euros). The sentence analyzes the bases and the list of clauses according to which SOREA won, in 2001, the contest for the indirect management of the public water service of Arenys de Mar.
One of the arguments of the concessionary company was the request for a balance of their accounts that had affected their business by increasing operating costs and reducing general consumption of the network. The request was not accepted by the city council and SOREA filed an appeal to the Administrative Court with all the arguments that justified its increase in costs. See the sentence.
Last year AGBAR also lost the appeal filed in the Administrative Court no. 4 of Barcelona that affected all previous years until 2003.
