About us

The Directorate of Commerce, Catering and Consumer Affairs

Local commerce, bars and restaurants fill our neighbourhoods with life. Over the years, Barcelona has gradually consolidated its commercial model based on the values of proximity, responsibility and sustainability. Because Barcelona has over 61,000 shops and restaurants, the city’s streets are always bustling. Organised into shopping hubs, associations and guilds, they all work together to offer you a better service every day.

However, Barcelona’s local commerce model is much more than a great economic driving force. It is an essential factor for improving social cohesion, community life and the quality of public spaces in the city. The Directorate of Commerce, Catering and Consumer Affairs works to promote this model and offer specialised municipal services for the commerce and catering sector, strengthening its network of associations, invigorating shopping areas and providing support for emblematic shops.

And now, through theMunicipal Consumer Information Office (OMIC) OMIC, we are also offering information, education and mediation on matters of consumerism and the relationships that are established between companies and consumers.

Adreça: Ronda Sant Pau, 43-45
Districte: 
Codi postal: 08015 
Població: Barcelona
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    Eix comercial Sarrià
    • Promote the association model in the commerce sector.
    • Favour participation in the world of commerce.
    • To promote local commerce, especially in the city’s neighbourhoods, to avoid commercial desertification and urban degradation processes.
    • Defend the social value of commerce.
    • Reinforce the introduction of quality in commerce.
    • Reinforce dynamism, innovation and continual adaptation in the world of commerce, opting for entrepreneurship.
    • Guarantee the knowledge and training of retail traders, and promote the continual adaptation of regulations in order to provide a rapid response to the needs and priorities of the world of commerce at any given moment.
    • Through the OMIC, to inform, educate and mediate on matters of consumerism and the relationships that are established between companies and consumers. 
    Accions
    • We offer subsidies to associations and groups of retailers in the municipality.
    • We undertake commercial promotion campaigns and collaborate with those launched by retailers’ associations to promote city commerce.
    • We facilitate information and statistical data about Barcelona commerce through this website.
    • We provide information about regulations applicable to commerce.
    • We sign collaboration agreements with public and private bodies that are aimed at promoting local commerce.
    • Through the OMIC, we provide information and advice about the rights of consumers; we offer mediation and conciliation of conflicts between the two parties and collaborate with consumer associations, among others.

    Participation: City and Commerce Forum

    You can walk along Barcelona’s streets, shop and enjoy quality leisure time, all thanks to its network of commercial, restaurant and catering establishments.

    To continue boosting these sectors and to take them into account when implementing policies that affect them, Barcelona City Council has created the City and Commerce Forum, a consultative and participatory body with the capacity to influence how Barcelona’s commerce is governed.

    Fòrum Ciutat i Comerç

    • The City and Commerce Forum is a tool for encouraging participation from sectoral and regional organisations as well as commercial sections of general employers’ organisations, representatives of institutions and municipal and external experts. It is governed by internal operational regulations.

      It aims to be a space for dialogue between the city’s municipal government, the various commercial sectors and people of recognised standing. 

    • Notable goals include: studying the role that commerce needs to fulfil in the city; analysing the problems of coexistence posed by the commercial sectors; analysing their contribution to the urban economy and boosting relations and participation between the authorities and commerce.

    • Its composition is currently being updated. The City and Commerce Forum is held at least once a year.

    • It is the City and Commerce Forum’s permanent body. It is a consultative and participatory body that influences how the commercial sector’s policies are made. Its goals are to propose, inform and study municipal initiatives, projects and policies that affect the city’s commercial sector. In this case, it meets up at least twice a year. Its composition is also currently being updated. 

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