SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Rubén Canales and Ignacio Temiño, Abril Abogados
ernments have services helping consumers to file complaints against companies operating in Spanish territories and/or start arbitration proceedings regard - ing disputes arising from commercial relationships. In addition, any person or entity whose economic interests are directly affected or threatened by illegal advertising in the market is entitled to take civil action under the Unfair Competition Act (civil proceeding). Consumers may exercise legal actions seeking: • a declaration of disloyalty; • cessation of unfair conduct; • prohibition of the implementation or future repeti - tion of conduct; • removal of its effects; • the rectification of misleading, incorrect or false information; and • compensation for damages caused by the unfair conduct, if the agent has acted with malice or fault. Finally, they can also lodge a complaint with Auto - control. The Autocontrol complaint system is free for In recent times, there has been growing concern about the use of environmental claims, as their uncon - trolled use has increased the occurrence of mislead - ing advertising. Thus, in the EU framework a new directive has been adopted: Directive (EU) 2024/825 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 February 2024, amending Directives 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU as regards empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and through better information. This new directive introduces into European consumer law specific rules to tackle unfair commercial prac - tices that mislead consumers and prevent them from making sustainable consumption choices, such as practices associated with the early obsolescence of goods, misleading environmental claims (“greenwash - ing”), misleading information about the social charac - teristics of products or traders’ businesses, or non- transparent and non-credible sustainability labels. consumers and consumer associations. 1.9 Regulatory and Legal Trends
The Spanish government has published a guide for the application of this new regulation and has announced its early application in Spain in 2026 through forth - coming local legislation, which is currently under par - liamentary review. Spanish authorities are also monitoring automatic renewal practices for online services, including music streaming platforms, video-on-demand (VOD) ser - vices, and gaming platforms. New rules have been announced to curb these practices. These rules target subscriptions that begin with a free trial period and automatically renew upon expiry, as well as annually renewable subscriptions and similar arrangements. Under the proposed rules, platforms will be required to notify users fifteen days before their subscription period expires. This advance warning will allow users to communicate their intention not to renew the ser - vice whilst ensuring they are properly informed about the expiry date and the consequences of failing to cancel the automatic renewal. The objective is to prevent users from inadvertently paying for automatic service renewals due to over - sight, thereby promoting more conscious consump - tion of contracted services. The final approved text and scope of these measures will only become clear once the regulations have been processed and formally approved. 1.10 Taste and Cultural Concerns Spanish society is becoming increasingly conscious of the importance of respecting cultural diversity and sexual orientation, while also actively opposing gen - der inequality. Stereotyping women and promoting sexist narratives are broadly rejected. In this context, in the summer of 2024 an aesthetic medicine clinic was forced to withdraw an advertising campaign promoting its breast surgery services for women, with the slogan “Just another summer chang - ing the beach scene”. The campaign generated great controversy in Spanish society as it was considered to objectify women as part of the beach scene and was widely rejected. The company was forced to withdraw the advert.
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