BARCLAYS BANK, forced to remove an advertisement on the Spanish TV because of illegal publicity

Mercantile Court nº 1 of Seville has accepted provisional measures demanded by AUSBANC, and bans the bank from broadcasting on TV the advertisement “Not at all a common account” – (the term “corriente” in Spanish has both meanings: current and common) due to the violation of consumer rights.

The advertising bank has publicly recognised the impossibility to read the text defining the characteristics of the financial product, but never the illegality of the full advertising campaign.

Barclays Bank, one of the major banks in the world, with a history that goes back three centuries ago, a direct presence in fifty countries and more than 40 million customers, has been forced to retire an advertisement from the Spanish TV, after it was demanded by Ausbanc Consumo before the Courts of Justice.

The court order by Mercantile Court nº 1 of Seville, accepts to enforce the provisional measure requested by Ausbanc’s legal department, and rules that Barclays Bank must remove the advertisement over their product “Cuenta nada corriente” (Not at all a common account) from being broadcasted by some of the TV channels operating in Spain.

In the hearing that took place on the 27th of April, the advertising bank admitted the impossibility to read the text appearing on the lower part of the screens, moving too fast and with overlapped characters, and showing legally required information by banking advertising rules. However, the bank never admitted in the hearing the illegality of such an advertisement.

Characters depicting conditions of the “Cuenta nada corriente”
are overlapped and fully illegible by spectators.

As a result of the legal action taken by Ausbanc Consumo last April, hardly criticising the advertisement released by Barclays, for breaking consumer rights, the bank decided to modify the advertisement and to present a new campaign in which contract conditions of the “Cuenta nada corriente” are legible for TV watchers. But, since there was a possibility that the advertisement declared illegal is broadcasted again by some TV channels, the Court has ordered the enforcement of the legal measures requested by Ausbanc, sentencing the bank to pay the legal expenses of the trial.

This legal action has also been published by the consumer specialised newspaper “Mercado de Dinero”, that on its May issue shows the image of the controversial advertisement and reports the lack of control of this kind of campaigns by the Central Bank of Spain (Banco de España).

On the other hand, Ausbanc legal department is working on a new legal action aiming at this kind of advertising campaigns to be declared illegal, and to prevent them from being broadcasted in the future.

It is really surprising that such a bank, with such a history, comprehensive international network and prestige as Barclays, disobeys the Spanish laws on advertising, and in such a deliberate manner, prevents consumers from reading the contract conditions of one of its products.