YNOT EUROPE – Reading the press in the summer always seems to be an adventure. This week, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo drew our attention with an item about “erotic vending machines.”

According to the article, consumers are hungry for pleasure, and those in Valencia received a pleasant surprise when “automatic sex shops” began showing up in the city. The vending machines offer everything from Chinese balls to vibrators, condoms and lubricants.

As might be expected, owners of traditional sex shops are not happy about the machines, and not just because they represent a new breed of competition. Margarita Antonsa, the attorney for Asociación Española de Sex-Shops [the Spanish Association of Sex Shops] told YNOT Europe the absolute absence of educational information about how to use the more specialized products safely and effectively is a major concern. In addition, the absence of sanitary controls causes some alarm, and many shop owners fear the reputation of the entire sex toy industry will suffer if consumers receive defective products from the machines. The machines offer no advice about returning defective products, Antonsa noted.

The association also wonders how the machines can be legal, since they do not seem to be following the same strict taxation and certification protocols required of traditional sex shops. The Spanish government, in fact, outlawed displaying sex toys in glass cases in 1982, and all sex shops must be licensed and inspected.

“According to the law, one may only sell these types of products in licensed establishments, and the association’s position is that we must all play by the same rules or we’ll break the game,” Antonsa told YNOT Europe.

Adelina Aránega, owner of the popular sex shop Kitsch, said the unfair competition doesn’t bother her, but she worries about the safety and satisfaction of consumers who purchase devices from the machines. Aránega said sex shops in Spain are subject to Draconian regulations passed with the express purpose of protecting not only consumer health and safety, but also morality. Sex shops may not sell their merchandise to minors, but what is to stop minors from buying products from the vending machines?