A judge in Valencia has odered a local developer to pay 49 clients a total of close to 3 million Euros in compensation for misleading marketing. It is a decision that could set a precedent for buyers who feel they have been mislead by their developers.

Clients sued 2 companies belonging to the developer Bautista Soler for marketing the Playa de la Patacona development in Alboraia, on the coast just north of Valencia city, as front line beach with sea views knowing full well that this would not be the case.

Buyers at Playa de la Patacona, developed and sold in the 1990s, were given brochures promising “front-line beach quality of life, and magnificent sea views” that have now disappeared behind a wall of cement. The same developer has built another development between them and the beach using the same marketing slogan.

The judge decided that the developer was perfectly well aware that its marketing claims would turn out to be false.