Collboni, determined to recover Barcelona's 'Amazon tax': "I am sure that we can win"

• The City Council aligns itself with small businesses to demand equal conditions to compete.
• The city council expects to collect three million euros through the tax.
• The Comertia association identifies large platforms as "the biggest threat" to retail.

The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, is determined to recover the so-called Amazon tax, a measure promoted by the city council itself that intends to make large postal operators who deliver purchases made online pay for occupying the city's public space with their delivery vans. Despite the ruling of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that declares the tax void, the Supreme Court decided, at the beginning of this year, to admit for processing an appeal filed by the City Council against the ruling. This Wednesday, within the framework of the conference retail from Comertia, Collboni has insisted that he will continue fighting in the courts. "I am sure that we can win", he has stated.

The so-called Amazon fee raised a great deal of dust when it came into effect in March 2023. At the time, the logistics and transport sector employers' association Uno described the measure as "discriminatory and antisocial", asserting that it "reduced the sales alternatives for small businesses". As a result of this opposition, both the Catalan Competition Authority (ACCO) like the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) challenged the tax, positions that ended up deriving in the mentioned judgment of the TSJC.

Far from the arguments put forward by these organizations, Collboni has aligned himself with the discourse of family-owned retail businesses and defended the need to "level the playing field." "There are merchants who have a business in the city and pay their taxes, while others have their tax headquarters outside the State and do not contribute," he pointed out during his speech, at an event held at CosmoCaixa.

For the mayor of the Catalan capital, the tax was limited to taxing the use of public space in a way similar to how water, gas, or electricity management companies pay for the use of the subsoil. In the same vein, he has claimed the need to influence the "big fish" in the sector – such as Amazon, DHL, and Seur, among others – to prevent them from eating up "the medium and small ones." According to the calculations of the Catalan capital, the tax would allow for the collection of nearly three million euros annually, which would be allocated to local and neighborhood physical commerce.

Although the City Council acknowledges that this is a "David versus Goliath" battle, Collboni has highlighted the importance of maintaining "a way of life and commerce" in cities. "Every time you make a purchase, you choose a model," he said. And although he sees it as "absurd" to deny the paradigm shift brought about by technological platforms, he also considers that it would be "naive" to stand idly by.

Trade demands

Taking advantage of Collboni's presence, Comertia establishments have conveyed their main demands to the administration through the voice of their president, Ignasi Pietx. During his speech, the association's top representative identified large platforms as the "greatest threat" to family retail trade.

"They compete with different rules," pointed out Pietx, who also wanted to make it clear that the sector does not reject, by any means, new trends. "We are not against technology, but we cannot ignore the reality, which is that the playing field is uneven," he noted.

At the same time, the president of Comertia lamented the excess of bureaucracy that small businesses face and called on all attendees to reflect on their purchasing process. "We have to decide whether we want a Mediterranean model, with social cohesion and quality of life, or a model based on dark streets and vans going up and down," he indicated.

Condemnation of vandalism

After a few days in Barcelona marked by riots in the city center and looting in shops, the association has also expressed its rejection of the acts of vandalism. "We defend the right of the people to demonstrate when things are not going well, but this cannot entail attacks against those businesses that are struggling to move forward," Pietx pointed out.

Faced with the events of the last few days, the executive has expressed "full solidarity" with the affected businesses and expects "decisive actions" from the administration to prevent such scenes from happening again.