A ruling from the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) supports that the Gremi de Restauració of Barcelona undertakes collective legal actions against the time restrictions on the operation of terraces and businesses filed by the Barcelona City Council in certain points of the city. This is not a trivial issue.
The Restoration Guild and the City Council have been in an intense dispute over this issue for a year or so. Because if the Gremi cannot raise collective demands, it is questioned among its own members, among those who pay their dues, and also among the rest of the professionals in the sector: what is the point if it cannot defend you? In this situation, Gremi played a good part of its reason for being.
And if the Gremi cannot act in court on behalf of its own, each affected restaurateur must do so individually. And facing the administration like this is always exhausting, exasperating, costly... And in the long run one loses. “We understand – says the TSJC ruling – that the Gremi has the legitimacy to challenge the administrative act of time restriction for the exercise of the restaurant activity that may cause harm to any current restaurateur or who could develop the activity in the future.”
The latest episode of the judicial war between the restaurateurs and the City Council derives from the time restrictions on the operation of terraces imposed in the previous mandate by the government of the then mayor Ada Colau, in order to appease the growing neighborhood complaints regarding the saturation of the space. public and to guarantee the rest and tranquility of the people, on Enric Granados street, five squares in Vila de Gràcia, the most bustling points of Raval and Gòtic, and the Mediterrània gardens, in Sants-Montjuïc. And also, with the socialist Jaume Collboni as mayor, in the Gulf Triangle area, in Sant Martí. We are talking about concrete measures, not general provisions.
Then the Gremi judicially attacked these restrictions twice, on its own behalf, like any other organization that fights for the interests of its own, and also on behalf of the businesses directly affected. This led to a duplication of procedures: the same matter ended up on the table of two different judges. And the City Council responded in each of the lawsuits in which the Gremi appeared that only those affected can try to challenge its decisions, that they must do so individually, one by one, arguing mainly, as can be read in the ruling, that the Gremi “does not have active standing to file this contentious-administrative appeal because we are dealing with an administrative act and not a general provision.” In reality, it is not such a crazy position either. And quite a few neighborhood associations applauded the municipal restrictions.
But the TSJC understands that addressing the Gremi's claim also facilitates the defense of future affected parties, of anyone who intends to set up a business in the affected areas. “We are not facing a general provision,” states the TSJC, “but we are facing a plural act that affects all restaurateurs who carry out their activity in the affected area, so although we are not facing a general provision, we are facing a act of general scope.” Meanwhile, the City Council is finalizing the corresponding appeal.
