The agency begins tracking prices one month before the campaign

• Monitoring scope: The Catalan Consumer Agency is tracking 7,500 products sold by 75 companies across multiple sectors to verify Black Friday discounts and prevent misleading promotions.
• Advance price tracking: Monitoring begins one month before the campaign to determine whether advertised discounts represent actual price reductions.
• Legal pricing standard: Discounts must be calculated against the lowest price charged during the preceding 30 days under ordinary selling conditions.
• Consumer protections: Checks also cover accurate displays of previous and discounted prices and compliance with consumer rights for remote purchases.
• Previous enforcement: Last season’s operation led to 100 penalty proceedings over suspected promotional irregularities. Fines can reach $100,000 euros per case, depending on the nature and severity of the violation.

Interior Minister Núria Parlon acknowledges that there is a problem with practical driving tests

• Police examiner proposal: Catalonia is considering assigning regional police officers who are not on street duty to conduct practical driving tests.
• Staffing shortage: Interior Minister Núria Parlon acknowledged that high demand and too few examiners have created problems with practical driving tests.
• Practical test backlog: Junts lawmaker Josep Rius reported that 90,000 people had passed the written test but were awaiting the practical exam, roughly 10,000 more than in September 2024.
• Written test delays: Rius also reported that 3,000 people in Tarragona were waiting to take the written driving test.
• Temporary authorization: Junts proposed seeking a national government decree temporarily allowing Catalan government employees to serve as examiners. Parlon agreed to put the proposal forward.
• Police staffing constraints: Parlon acknowledged that police staffing is already tight but identified officers on modified duty as potential examiners. She said previous efforts had not yet produced an adequate solution.

The City Council fines the contracted company over availability and maintenance problems

• All-electric fleet: Barcelona plans to replace Bicing’s 3,000 conventional bicycles during the first half of 2027, making the service fully electric by summer.
• Contractor penalty: The city fined the operator €150,000 under contractual provisions addressing bicycle availability and maintenance problems.
• Municipal investment: A service improvement plan includes up to €5.8 million in city funding, covering fleet electrification and maintenance upgrades.
• Maintenance measures: Plans include a reserve of 400 new electric bicycles, purchasing and replacing 2,000 batteries, renewing brakes and other components, and expanding maintenance teams.
• Record ridership projected: Bicing expects 20.5 million trips in 2026. Each electric bicycle averages 16 uses per weekday, increasing wear and repair needs.
• Expansion pledge: Mayor Jaume Collboni pledged to increase the fleet by 50% to 12,000 bicycles and add stations during the next mayoral term.
• Bike-lane construction: Collboni’s current term has added fewer bike-lane miles than any previous city administration, while cycling group BACC has reported a sharp slowdown in bicycle promotion policies.

The City Council and the ATM are putting out to tender this week a 40-month construction project between Verdaguer and Francesc Macià

• Construction timeline: Barcelona and the metropolitan transit authority will open bidding this week for the Verdaguer–Francesc Macià streetcar connection. Contracts are targeted for spring 2027, followed by 40 months of construction and service beginning in 2031.
• Public investment: Five contract packages include an estimated $217 million euros in combined spending: 120 million euros from the city and 97 million euros from the transit authority, financed by Catalonia’s regional government.
• Infrastructure work: The project covers streetcar infrastructure, Diagonal Avenue redevelopment, and a sewer collector intended to double hydraulic capacity at a key location. City funding allocates 65.5 million euros to the collector and 54.5 million euros to redevelopment.
• Construction traffic: Two lanes in each direction will remain available for private vehicles and buses during construction, with temporary changes as needed.
• Permanent traffic changes: Between Zona Universitària and Francesc Macià, two inbound lanes will become bus lanes, shifting private traffic to three side lanes. Between Passeig de Sant Joan and Pau Claris Street, motor traffic will use two side lanes per direction.
• Street redesign: Redevelopment will cover 2.8 kilometers and 115,000 square meters, adding 16,000 square meters of pedestrian space and 18,900 square meters of green space, alongside a four-meter-wide, two-way bike lane.
• Projected transit use: End-to-end streetcar trips along Diagonal Avenue are estimated to take less than 40 minutes. Officials project 75 million annual trips after full connection and report a 30% ridership increase following the first phase.

Sirera denounces the fact that "it is not reasonable for Collboni to leave awarded a project that will affect mobility in Barcelona when his continuation as mayor is not guaranteed"

• Tram connection: Barcelona and the Metropolitan Transport Authority plan to launch bidding this week to connect Verdaguer and Francesc Macià, completing the tram link along Diagonal Avenue.
• Construction schedule: Officials aim to award contracts in spring 2027, with construction expected to take 40 months and full service projected for 2031.
• Opposition pledge: Barcelona Popular Party leader Daniel Sirera pledged to block the connection if elected mayor and demanded that bidding be postponed until the next municipal government takes office.
• Cost and congestion: Sirera cited a $217 million-equivalent euro investment of 217 million euros, roughly four years of construction, and the removal of an inbound traffic lane as reasons the project could worsen congestion.
• Election timing: Sirera objected to Mayor Jaume Collboni committing the city to a major transportation project shortly before the May 23, 2027, municipal election, when his continuation in office is uncertain.
• Transportation priorities: Sirera supported improving public transportation but rejected the tram connection as a priority, pointing instead to unfinished infrastructure such as Metro Line 9, under construction for more than 20 years.

The incident occurred on a Cargill company siding in Martorell

• Freight collision: Three railcars struck a Renfe freight locomotive Tuesday in Martorell, near Barcelona.
• Engineer taken to hospital: The engineer was not injured but was taken to a medical facility under standard protocol.
• Private siding: The incident began on Cargill’s privately owned rail siding, which connects to the broader rail network.
• Cause undetermined: The three railcars broke loose for reasons not yet established, left the siding, and struck a locomotive on the general-interest rail network.
• Commuter service unaffected: Renfe confirmed that the collision did not disrupt Rodalies commuter rail service.