Nightlife businesses go to courts in attempt to reverse closure order

The Catalan Federation of Nightclubs (Fecalon) has filed an appeal against the government's decision to close nightclubs due to Covid-19. 

The entity considers that the fundamental right of freedom of enterprise has been violated. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, it asks the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) to suspend the resolution or, as an alternative, to ratify the contingency plan and health measures presented by the sector.

The secretary-general and legal spokesman of the group, Fernando Martínez, believes that "the resolution of the Catalan government is unconstitutional, and has not followed the mandatory procedures such as that of July 17 for the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona, ​​which required judicial ratification.”

The group has provided documents such as a guide of sanitary measures, a control app to follow traceability where appropriate, measures taken on the premises since the lockdown de-escalation phases, and the sector’s contingency plan, which was submitted to the Civil Protection, which has not yet been answered or studied by the body.

At the same time, the business federation claims that "irreparable damage" has been done to the Catalan nightlife sector, and provide a sampling of its members on the monthly losses incurred after more than four months of inactivity and limitations of their operations.

The group says it wants to save a business sector that counts more than 37,000 workers and more than 3,600 establishments, and has proposed to the court that there be a balance between compliance with the right to health and the fundamental right to freedom of enterprise.