New blow to music festivals. The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda announced this Tuesday that it has imposed a sanction for having introduced “various abusive clauses that limit the rights of consumers” to a company that organizes festivals in several autonomous communities. According to La Vanguardia, it is Reggaeton Beach Festival, an event held in Barcelona and nine other Spanish cities, managed by a company headquartered in Badalona.
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According to Consumer Affairs, the total amount of the sanction amounts to 320,000 euros for having carried out practices considered abusive. The company has admitted responsibility for the infractions and is obliged to rectify and eliminate those abusive clauses, such as expressly prohibiting access to the venue with food and drink from outside, as well as reserving the right to search attendees.
In addition, it limited consumers’ re-entry to the festival venues, so they had to pay an additional amount on top of the ticket price to be able to enter and exit during the event. On the other hand, it imposed management fees on ticket sales “after verifying that the price increase did not correspond to a service actually provided” and restricted the right to refund money that attendees had not spent through the established payment method, cashless wristbands, to a limited time.
Furthermore, the ministry indicates that this sanction marks the conclusion of the file opened by Consumer Affairs following a complaint filed by Facua-Consumers in Action in 2022.
The organizers also reserved the right to search attendees
This consumer organization then announced that it had reported RBF Travel 2020, the promoter and organizer of the Reggaeton Beach Festival, for prohibiting access to the venues where it was held with food or drinks purchased outside. Besides Barcelona, the festival has also been held in Madrid, Avilés, Marbella, Benidorm, Mallorca, Santander, Marina d’Or, Tenerife, and Nigrán (Pontevedra).
Facua processed this complaint because it considered that the main activity of the festival was not hospitality, but the development of a musical show. Thus, it pointed out that “the prohibition of consuming food and drinks purchased outside the venue is not necessary for the proper execution of the marketed activity.” And it added that it could not do so for security reasons either “especially when it is possible to purchase food and drink inside the venue.”
Facua’s complaint was filed with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs itself, also with the Catalan Consumer Agency, since the promoter is headquartered in Badalona, and with the consumer protection authorities in the various autonomous communities where this event was held.
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Facua referred to Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, of November 16, which approves the revised text of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users and other complementary laws, which stipulates that “all clauses not individually negotiated and all practices not expressly consented to that, contrary to the requirements of good faith, cause harm to the user will be considered abusive,” as well as those that limit consumer rights.
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This sanction does not catch the organizers of Reggaeton Beach Festival (RBF) at a good time. Last June, they announced the cancellation of the seven events they had scheduled for this summer, just two weeks before the first one was to take place, which was precisely going to be held in Barcelona on June 27 and 28.
The organization stated in a note that this decision was made “after analyzing the overall situation of the project and verifying that the company’s operational and financial structure no longer allows it to face the organization and development of a tour of this magnitude with the necessary guarantees.”
This decision came after two new partners entered the company’s capital last February: the investment fund Cerruti Capital 1881, based in Dubai, and Vanquish Sports & Media Group, an international firm specializing in cultural events.
The 2026 edition of the RBF was going to feature artists such as Omar Courtz, Myke Towers, and Anuel AA. These festivals were to be held, in addition to Barcelona, in Tenerife, Santander, Mallorca, Madrid, Nigrán, and Alicante. Its suspension was so unexpected that it occurred barely a week after the announcement that the capital of Alicante was also included among the cities.
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