Complaint of linguistic discrimination at the Leroy Merlin in Palma: "If you don't speak to me in Spanish, I won't serve you"

PalmGabriel Bibiloni, a linguist and retired professor of Catalan Philology at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), has announced on social media that he has filed a complaint with the consumer protection agency Consum following a new case of linguistic discrimination against the use of Catalan. According to the professor, the incident occurred in a Leroy Merlin store in Palma, when a sales assistant told him she couldn't understand him in Catalan and urged him to speak to her in Spanish. "If you don't speak to me in Spanish, I won't help you," the sales assistant told him.

In this regard, Bibiloni expressed his regret over the incident and explained that he took the case to the Balearic Islands Consumer Affairs Office. He explained that he filed the complaint at the Consumer Affairs Office, a process that, he noted, cost him "a whole morning" due to technical problems with the regional government's website. Afterward, the Consumer Affairs Office contacted the company, which responded with a statement claiming to have contacted the customer by phone to apologize. According to the complainant, the Consumer Affairs Office informed him that he had 10 days to submit an appeal against the company's response, but also indicated that the procedure would not result in any penalty, as there is no specific sanctions regime for this type of case. "Since there are no legal sanctions, this should end up being nothing and a waste of time," Bibiloni summarized in his thread. Along these lines, he lamented that consumers in the Balearic Islands are "completely unprotected" regarding their linguistic rights and "subject to corporate abuses." The philologist reiterated his public complaint and encouraged others to bring these situations to light.