The Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia has approved the Preliminary Report of the Draft Law for the reform of Law 18/2017, of August 1, on Commerce, Services and Fairs and Decree Law 1/2009, of December 22, Management of Commercial Facilities. 

This new Law, still pending development, intends to introduce modifications both in the current regulation of the establishment of commercial establishments (criteria and location requirements) and in the organization of commercial activity (promotional activities, business hours, etc.), for the purposes of adapting said regulations to the important economic, social, digital and environmental transformations that have affected commercial activity in recent years and that have left their mark on the sector.

In accordance with the Preliminary Report approved by the Generalitat of Catalonia, the modification of the commercial regulations will pursue the following objectives:
 

Modifications in relation to the Ordinance Decree of Commercial Facilities :

• To re-enable the request for the delimitation of consolidated supra-municipal urban grids, suppressing the time limit established in the current standard that provides that such delimitations could only be requested until 12/31/2014.
• Make the implementation of small commercial establishments (up to 799 m 2 sales area) more flexible , especially in small municipalities (less than 5,000 inhabitants).
• Eliminate the interpretative doubts of the current regulation on the criteria of location and management of commercial use.
• Simplify the requirements demanded for commercial establishments located outside the TUC and adjoining or contiguous to it .

Modifications in relation to the Law of Commerce, Services and Fairs :

• Introduce in the regulation of business hours the changes derived from the Constitutional Court Judgment No. 117/2022, basically consisting of:
• Extend the opening hours of commercial establishments in any sector of commercial offer, which are not large companies and have less than 300 m 2 .
• Extend the opening hours of commercial establishments in the daily sector (food) that have less than 300 m 2 , regardless of the category of the company.  
• Offer Town Halls the possibility of setting an authorized commercial opening day if two or more consecutive holidays (of a general or local nature) coincide.
• Transfer to the regulations the consequences derived from Judgment no. 117/2022 of the Constitutional Court regarding the prescription of offenses and sanctions.
• Giving a unitary treatment to the various sales promotion activities (highlighting what is common to them -the increase in sales- over what differentiates them -their incentive or extinction purpose-).
• Clarify the regulation of promotions, especially in relation to the cases in which generalized promotions are allowed.
• Make the regulation of surplus or outlet sales more flexible, to facilitate the departure of winter or summer merchandise that is stored in commercial establishments.  

You can consult the full content of the preliminary report approved by the Generalitat at the following link: Data (gencat.cat)

When the Draft Law is approved, which will include the articles of the new regulation, it will be submitted to public information, and a period will be enabled to formulate Claims in relation to the content of the new Law.

We will keep you promptly informed of the developments that are taking place in the processing of this new Law.

We remain at your entire disposal to answer any questions that may arise.