CaixaBank, the Worst Company of the Year 2022 by consumers

CaixaBank has been chosen as the Worst Company of the Year by consumers. The bank received 39% of the votes in the latest edition organised by FACUA-Consumidores en Acción. Vodafone and Endesa were also nominated.

This is the first year that the bank has been nominated for this award. This is an event that FACUA has been holding since 2010 to censure serious abuses that occur in the market and to promote more responsible practices in relations between companies. To date, the company that has received the award on the most occasions has been Movistar, no less than five times: it was chosen in the first three and in the seventh and eighth editions.

Voting took place between 15 and 30 March. On the same day, FACUA announced the winner of the other category of these awards, The Worst (and most sexist) Advertisement of 2022, which went to the Xunta de Galicia for a campaign against gender violence in which the focus was once again on the victims, blaming them for the way they dress or the hours they go out on the street.

Why did CaixaBank receive the award?

This year's nominees were the companies with the most complaints filed with FACUA by consumers in sectors as important as telecommunications, energy and banking. In the case of CaixaBank, the causes of the complaints were especially the refusal to return all the money defrauded when charging mortgage arrangement fees, together with usurious interest on loans, the charging of abusive fees and the refusal to return amounts stolen in cases of phishing or smishing.

Worst Abuse of the Year

Along with the Worst Company award, users also voted for what they consider to be the Worst Business Abuse of the Year. The winner was the constant and indiscriminate increase in food prices, with 58% of the votes, at a time of high inflation and economic crisis.

The other abuses that could be voted on were the banking sector's commitment to the continued closure of branches and the refusal to provide face-to-face attention for basic operations, the indiscriminate use of very high interest rates -sometimes usurious- on revolving cards, and the delay by energy companies in activating the TUR regulated tariff for those consumers who requested it, at a time when high energy prices have made free market prices much higher than those of the regulated market.

Movistar wins five awards, Endesa four

Endesa was the winner of the last edition of the Worst Company of the Year, as in the two previous years. In 2018, the award went to Vodafone. Movistar was the worst company in 2016 and also won in the first, second, third and seventh editions. The 2014 Worst Company winner was Gilead, the hepatitis C drug company Sovaldi. In the fourth and fifth editions, the award went to Bankia.

Last 2020, voting was not called due to the coincidence of the Worst Company of the Year awards with the declaration of the state of alarm.

These are the winners and nominees in the 13 editions held to date:

Worst Company of 2021: Endesa (winner), Vodafone and Banco Santander.

Worst Company of 2020: Endesa (winner), Vodafone, Banco Santander and Vueling.

Worst Company of 2019: Endesa (winner), Vodafone, BBVA and Vueling.

Worst Company of 2018: Vodafone (winner), BBVA, Endesa and Ryanair.

Worst Company of 2017: Endesa (winner), BBVA, Vodafone and Volkswagen.

Worst Company of 2016: Movistar (winner), BBVA, El Corte Inglés and Volkswagen.

Worst Company of 2015: Movistar (winner), Santander, Twitter and Volkswagen.

Worst Company of 2014: Gilead (winner), Bankia, Orange, Divatto and Repsol.

Worst Company 2013: Bankia (winner), Endesa, Iberdrola, Movistar and Vodafone.

Worst Company 2012: Bankia (winner), Endesa, Iberdrola, Movistar and Vodafone.

Worst Company of 2011: Movistar (winner), Bankia, CAM, Vodafone and Ryanair.

Worst Company of 2010: Movistar (winner), Vodafone, Bankinter, Power Balance and Ryanair.

Worst Company of 2009: Movistar (winner), Air Comet, Orange, Ryanair and Vodafone.