A tuna company submitted a request for information to know the sanctioning files that have been initiated and resolved in relation to bluefin tuna fishing companies and for the financial year of its activities and also to all communications made by the Spanish State to the European Union to inform it of the existence of such sanctions.
The Administration denied access due to administrative silence., adding, at the claim stage, that the specific regulation, Law 39/2015, of October 1, of the Common Administrative Procedure of the Public administrations; the sanctioning files contain specially protected data; it causes real damage to the competitiveness of companies; access to the file does not pursue the intrinsic purpose of the LTAIBG – the control of public activity – but to obtain information about certain entities investigated.
The Council for Transparency and Good Governance partially considered the complaint, on the grounds that the purpose of the request for access is related to the purpose of monitoring public performance, to the seek to know the Administration’s inspection and sanctioning actions in respect of the activities carried out by certain companies in the bluefin tuna fishing sector. In this regard, it should be borne in mind that the power of inspection and sanction of the Administration derives from the “ius puniendi” of the State or the sanctioning power it has to impose a penalty or an administrative sanction on those who have violated a legal norm, power that can and must also be subject to control by the citizens through the mechanisms offered by the LTAIBG, respecting, however, the constitutional and legally established limits. Making sanctions public to companies that market products for human consumption is in line with the purpose mentioned in the LTAIBG of knowing how the public authorities make decisions, given that these procedures are urged before the competent authorities in matters of sanctioning maritime fisheries and have, or may have, potential direct effects on citizens, affecting constitutional rights closely linked to the person, such as the protection of health and the defense of consumers and users.
