Benidorm launches an inspection campaign against the display of offensive items in shops and shop windows

Benidorm City Council, through the Municipal Inspection Service of the Department of Commerce, has launched an information campaign against the display of offensive items in shop windows and businesses throughout the city. These include T-shirts and other products with derogatory messages and/or sexual, homophobic, sexist, or racist content, specifically targeted for sale to tourists.

The Councillor for the department, Javier Jordá, explained that "the Department of Commerce has been detecting certain commercial activities that may be considered irregular in light of the regulations governing advertising and the protection of minors." Hence, the City Council has launched this campaign "so that these items are no longer displayed on the facades and windows of commercial establishments, visible to anyone walking down the street, even young children."

To this end, the municipal inspectorate has begun visiting businesses where the presence of these garments and articles has been detected, informing those responsible that the public display of these items for sale "may constitute a violation of advertising regulations by attacking human dignity or violating the values ​​and rights recognized in the Spanish Constitution," as this constitutes illegal advertising under the provisions of General Advertising Law 34/1988, of November 11. Furthermore, they are also informed that this "may constitute a violation of child protection regulations because the advertising is not appropriate for the level of knowledge and maturity of the intended audience," in accordance with the provisions of Law 26/2018, of December 21, on the Rights and Guarantees of Children and Adolescents, as explained by Jordá.

Likewise, the councillor indicated that, in addition to these two general laws, Municipal Ordinance No. 2 on the Use of Public Areas, in its Article 3, "expressly prohibits the display of products that may offend people's moral sensibilities, as would be the case with most of these items."

For all these reasons, the City Council "requires you to immediately remove any type of product containing the aforementioned messages from public display," warning you that failure to comply with this requirement will result in the initiation of appropriate disciplinary proceedings against the owner of the activity, as well as the adoption of any legally available measures to prevent the continuation of the infringing action.

The head of Commerce stated that this initiative, in addition to ensuring compliance with the law regarding items displayed in shops and shop windows, is also the result of recent meetings held with representatives of the AICO retail association, in which the City Council outlined these inspection measures.

Finally, Javier Jordá requested the collaboration of the establishments involved and expressed his confidence that this information campaign "will be sufficient to ensure that businesses stop displaying these types of items for sale on public streets, avoiding the need to impose sanctions or other even more restrictive measures."