More and more cinemas in Spain expressly ask that those who go to see a film not bring food from outside. The famous Ideal cinema chain was the last to harden its cyclical and aggressive campaign about not being able to come accompanied by your arsenal of goodies from Carrefour. If you want to eat during the duration of the film, you will have to consume some of the products that the cinema offers in its facilities, and those people who try to hide food and are discovered, will have to leave the premises.
Regardless of how widespread this practice is, is it illegal to enter the cinema with food from outside? No, a priori prohibiting entering the cinema with food from outside is not legal. But there are some important facts to keep in mind.
What tool do cinemas wield? They have studied it well. They hide behind Decree 86/2013. They allege that since their economic activity is now also that of “Special restaurant, cafeteria and coffee-bar services” (heading 674.6 IAE), bringing you food from home is violating their sphere of rights. So based on this legal engineering, they protect themselves to prohibit the entry of food not purchased at their premises.
doDecree 86/2013? Yes, with a quick search on the Internet, we detect that this rule serves to regulate classified activities and public shows in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands. In other words, it is a regulation (not even law) of the Canary Islands. And they are applying it to all the premises in Spain. The thing does not look good.
a law is broken. And it is that we must not forget that you go to the cinema to see movies, although there are gluttonous moviegoers to the fullest. But it is that they are also breaking national laws, such as the Law of Consumers and Users. Specifically, article 82, which says:
“Abusive clauses will be considered all those stipulations not negotiated individually and all those practices not expressly consented to that, contrary to the requirements of good faith, cause, to the detriment of the consumer and user, a significant imbalance of the rights and obligations of the parties that arising from the contract”.
It must be clear that observing the nature of the contract when a movie ticket is purchased, we have not purchased anything to consume food, therefore, it cannot be their main activity, even when they want to frame their economic activity there.
What Helm says. And as we can read on the Yelmo posters themselves, they refer to article 7 of the regulations for the Admission of people in Public Shows and Recreational Activities establishments, approved by Decree 10/2003 (modified by Decree 211/2018), which provides as Admission condition that “the owners of hospitality and leisure and recreation establishments can request the respective City Council for authorization (or DER) of the specific admission condition of preventing the access of people who carry food and drinks to be consumed inside these establishments.
But cinemas cannot benefit from this admission condition, since they are not hospitality or leisure and entertainment establishments, according to the classification of Decree 155/2018 (Nomenclature).
There are precedents. Over the years, case law on the matter has accumulated. For the good of all cinephiles. We find references arguing about the illegality of him as the Report of the Ministry of Health and the Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition, 2016, or Judgment no. 82/2001 of the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla la Mancha, confirming in both cases the illegality of this prohibition of entry to cinemas.
Specifically, the Report concludes by saying that “It is considered that the practice of prohibiting the introduction of food and drinks purchased outside the movie theater, while the consumption of these same products is allowed when they are purchased inside, is illegal and has abusive character in accordance with the provisions of articles 82, 86.7 and 89.4 of the TRLGDCU” (Consolidated Text of the General Law of Consumers and Users.)
The case of Cadiz. Several complaints have been filed in the city of Cadiz due to this new trend in movie theaters. The commotion ended with the Delegation of the Autonomous Government of Cádiz carrying out measures to paralyze this practice: “Those cinemas that have violated the admission regulations have been intervened and in some cases the posters announcing said specific admission condition”, explains the head of the Service for Games and Public Shows in the province of Cadiz, Juan Cabañas Rojas.
The Government Delegation warns that “all specific admission conditions not previously authorized by the City Council are illegal; that is, no company can unilaterally announce a specific admission condition without having submitted it to the corresponding municipal intervention means” .
Then? If the cinema allows the consumption of food and drinks in its facilities, “it is abusive that they do not allow them to come from abroad. And this is because its main activity is not the sale of these products, but the cinematographic exhibition. Actually, the measure of not allowing food only makes sense in the case of a bar or a restaurant. For example, because its primary activity is the sale of these.
But the main thing is nothing more than preventing a user from entering a restaurant with their own food or drink is a limitation of the reasonable right of admission, but doing so in a cinema has “as little legal basis” as not allowing them to enter with a coat. It is an abusive practice and it does harm consumers. In conclusion, no cinema should prohibit the consumption of food from outside the building itself. At least, if you don’t want it to happen to you like the Multicines España, in Zafra, the first cinema fined for taking away candy from a spectator.