Bono Social de Electricidad electricity subsidy assessment

Spanish transparency organisation Civio and the country's National Commission on Markets and Competition have created a dedicated webpage to help at-risk individuals and families struggling to re-register and apply for Spain's Bono Social de Electricidad (or 'BOSCO') electricity discounts.

With BOSCO's app malfunctioning and difficult to understand, Civio requested its source code in order to ensure its own service gave the same results, only to be rebuffed. 

In July 2019, Civio filed an administrative order with Spain's Council of Transparency and Good Governance to force its release. This was declined on the basis the code constituted a trade secret. AlgorithmWatch also tried to find out whose copyright would have been violated, again without success. 

At the deadline, only 1.5 million beneficiaries had been approved, far less than the estimated 4.5 million who were estimated to be eligible to receive the discount.