The Civil Guard accuses Tous of refilling its jewelry to "lower costs"

Tous breaks the law by marketing pieces of jewelry filled with a non-metallic material, says a report by the Civil Guard that is part of the investigation that the National Court has opened against the company for alleged fraud and misleading advertising. The report states that "it is intuited that the purpose of this practice is to reduce costs" by maintaining the weight and appearance of a solid piece.

The tests carried out before a notary public by the association of consumers and users of jewelery Consujoya, which was the one who denounced the case, allow the Civil Guard of Córdoba to maintain in its report that Tous sells under the name of sterling silver pieces that “they are filled inside with a non-metallic material”. A practice that, according to the analysis of the legislation made by the researchers, is not legal. The filling of pieces of precious metals is only allowed, adds the report, "in three cases that do not correspond to those studied": it can be used to give stability only to vessels, chandeliers or the like, but "not for pieces of jewelry".

The Civil Guard also ensures that the laboratory in charge of the contrast —the mark that is engraved on objects made with precious metals as a guarantee of their purity— must “verify the density and the grade” and points out that the Applus Laboratories laboratory with The one who works Tous "should have detected the presence of a non-metallic material." He adds that the law requires that the composition be the same in all parts of the object, and concludes: "These pieces should never have been contrasted as sterling silver." Investigators believe the company is "in collusion" with the lab.

José María Bosch, general director of Tous, acknowledged this Wednesday before the judge that the silver pieces in the shape of the brand's iconic bear are filled with a material similar to methacrylate, but added that it is an allowed technique by law, reported legal sources. "We are satisfied with how the appearance has gone," Tous said later in a statement. The Spanish Association of Jewelers, Silversmiths and Watchmakers came out in defense of the Catalan company with another statement in which it assured that Spanish law allows the manufacture of objects with precious metals with fillers and that the technology used by Tous is "common, normal and usual in the sector”.

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This technique, called electroforming or electroforming, was the protagonist of the interrogation to which the Prosecutor's Office submitted the person in charge of Tous. "The fillers are part of the electroforming technique that allow the jewel to be given volume and the design varied," says the statement from the jewelers' association, in line with what was declared in court by the person in charge of Tous. The association adds that the use of this filler does not reduce the alloy grade, that is, that a silver jewel can take it and still be a sterling silver jewel.

The two Tous pendants that the complainant association took to the Ecomep laboratory in December 2018 to analyze their silver content were "illegally traded," says the report, which was signed by its director, Fernando López Gómez, and to which THE COUNTRY agreed. The document concludes that the pieces "cannot be contrasted" because the regulation of the Precious Metals Law prevents it when they contain a metallic filler other than those listed in the standard. López testified before the Civil Guard and pointed out that the pieces were costume jewelry, not jewelry, according to El Independiente.

The company has filed an appeal against the order of Judge Santiago Pedraz in which he agreed to the first proceedings and cited those responsible for Tous and the Applus laboratory as being investigated. In it, he demands that bail be imposed on the popular prosecution and denounces that it is motivated by "spurious" interests, according to legal sources.

“The technique they use is not regulated by law. Let them say that it is plated or that it has a gold or silver plating, but that they do not sell it at the price of gold and silver when it is not," said Magdalena Entrenas, the lawyer for the complainant association, after the statement. "They refuse to understand that what they have to sell is jewelry," he stressed.