The Council of Ministers agreed this Tuesday, at the proposal of the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Pablo Bustinduy, to limit for a week the price of hotel and accommodation services in 14 municipalities of Andalusia and Extremadura in which the population had to be evacuated. It is the first time that the mechanism to limit the prices of trips, services or products in emergency situations has been put in place — and it still has to be endorsed in Congress. Consumer organizations celebrate the initiative.
Thus, hotels in the municipalities where there are still evicted or rehoused people will not be able to increase their prices compared to those they had the month before the start of the emergency, as explained by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 in a statement. The affected municipalities are located in five provinces: Cádiz (Grazalema, Jerez de la Frontera, Ubrique, Vejer de la Frontera); Granada (Nívar, Montefrío, Pinos Puente and Zagra); Jaén (Cazorla and Santisteban del Puerto); Malaga (Benaoján and Ronda); and Badajoz (Burguillos del Cerro and Medellín). The limitation comes into effect this Wednesday and will extend until February 25.
The regulations arise after confirming Consumption that after the terrible damage in Valencia and the tragedy, many establishments and applications took the opportunity to greatly increase the price of trips, rooms, products and services, upsetting consumers. It has happened, for example, with plane tickets between Madrid and Andalusia, whose rates have skyrocketed due to the lack of high-speed service for a month.
The decree — approved last week — grants the Executive the power to place caps on the prices of tickets and products when an emergency situation is declared, establishing that the price may not be higher than the maximum rate that this service or product had in the 30 calendar days prior to the beginning of this situation. That is, if a Madrid-Seville flight cost at most 300 euros in the last month,
The regulations also introduce an additional cap mechanism: if the maximum price that a service or product has had in those previous 30 days is more than 50% higher than the average price in that same period, the reference for capping a price will become the average price of the 30 days plus 50%. That is, if the average is 200 euros, but the maximum peak is 1,000 euros, the limit would be 300 euros.
This Tuesday is the first time that the Government makes use of this Royal Decree-Law 4/2026. “With the entry into force of this agreement, hotel and lodging establishments in these municipalities will not be able to increase their price compared to what they had the month before the start of the emergency,” they have detailed from the Bustinduy department. “In addition, they will be obliged to inform that there is a price limitation and what the prices are in a transparent manner, having established that, in case of non-compliance, consumers have the right to a refund,” they added.
In this case, the Royal Decree is applied in the 14 mentioned municipalities because they are those in which there are more than 10 evicted people and in which they represent at least 0.1% of the municipality’s population. In the agreement, the Council of Ministers has also made explicit recognition of those establishments that have collaborated in facilitating relocations quickly with the help of the administrations.
Voting in Congress
Consumer organizations celebrate the initiative. “It is an incontestable measure that we demanded from Consumption when the Adamuz tragedy occurred. Now it has to be validated in Congress and we believe that we would have to be very petty to vote against, because we are talking about stopping abuses with prices in situations where people are more vulnerable,” says Rubén Sánchez, from Facua.
Enrique García, from the OCU, agrees: “At OCU we positively value the legal modification that allows the limitation of the prices of essential services in situations of catastrophe, emergency or need in which consumers have no alternatives and can be victims of abuse due to exorbitant prices. We have recently witnessed situations of abusive prices where consumers did not have the ability to choose.”
From Asufin they add: “We think it is right that the Government now acts against the serious damage caused by the indiscriminate increase in products and services in the face of extraordinary events.” In his opinion, “events of this nature, which disrupt supply and demand, put users in a truly desperate situation and highlight the role played by dynamic prices. Indiscriminate price increases that do not, in many cases, result from a human decision, but are the result of the application of automated algorithms.”
