Rail operator Renfe fined €900,000 for breaching consumer rights

The Catalan government has imposed a penalty of €900,000 on Spanish public rail operator Renfe for violating consumers' rights during the failure of the R2Sud line in Gavà last May, the Catalan News Agency (ACN) has learned. 

The sanction was approved by the executive at its weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday. 

The government has increased the penalty proposed by the Catalan Consumer Agency in November by €200,000 after a series of inspections. 

According to the complaint, Renfe engaged in "unfair commercial practices, by action or omission," because it misinformed customers when they were deciding whether to buy tickets for the R2Sud line, an infringement considered "very serious" considering the "distrust" generated and Renfe's dominance in the market. 

Of the €900,000 fine, €700,000 corresponds to Barcelona, €100,000 to Tarragona, and €100,000 to Terres de l'Ebre, in the very south of Catalonia. 

Inspections 

The Catalan government deployed a team of inspectors on May 8, 2023 at Barcelona-Sants, Passeig de Gràcia, Camp de Tarragona, Reus and L'Aldea-Amposta-Tortosa stations to check whether the operator complied with its obligations to consumers and acted to reduce disruptions to the service. 

During the course of the inspection, it found alterations to timetables and to alternative transport, closed customer service points and trains advertised as direct which then stopped at all stations. 

For this reason, the consumer agency considered that there were "deficiencies" in the information provided by the railway company in relation to the R2Sud service, which at that time was affected by severe disruptions as a result of a fire in a signal box at Gavà, south of Barcelona. 

The fault occurred on May 1, and there was controversy over what caused it. It was initially wrongly attributed to lightning before it was concluded that the overhead line had broken which, due to vandalism of the system that was supposed to protect the facilities, was not detected automatically. 

Renfe said on Thursday that it had not yet been notified of the penalty.