SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Rubén Canales and Ignacio Temiño, Abril Abogados
claims, including “recyclable”, “recycled”, “reduced energy consumption”, “reduced water consumption”, “reduced resource use”, “reusable” and “waste reduc - tion”. In the EU framework, the Directive (EU) 2024/825 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 Feb - ruary 2024 clarifies misleading commercial practices that should be prohibited: • The first misleading commercial practice is making generic environmental claims without being able to demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim. Examples of generic environmental claims include “environmen - tally friendly”, “eco-friendly”, “green”, “nature’s friend”, “ecological”, “environmentally correct”, “climate friendly”, “gentle on the environment”, “carbon friendly”, “energy efficient”, “biodegrada - ble”, “biobased” or similar statements that suggest or create the impression of excellent environmental performance. In any case, generic claims such as “conscious”, “sustainable” or “responsible” based exclusively on recognised excellent environmental performance are not allowed, as such claims refer to other characteristics in addition to environmental characteristics, such as social characteristics. • The second misleading commercial practice is making an environmental claim about the entire product or the trader’s entire business, when it actually concerns only a certain aspect of the product or a specific, unrepresentative activity of the trader’s business. • The third misleading commercial practice is making claims, based on the offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions, that a product (goods or services) has a neutral, reduced, or positive impact on the environ - ment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Such claims are prohibited in all circumstances as they mislead consumers by making them believe that such claims relate to the product itself or to the supply and production of that product, or give the false impression to consumers that the consump - tion of that product does not have an environmen - tal impact. Examples of such claims are “climate neutral”, “CO₂-neutral certified”, “carbon posi - tive”, “climate net zero”, “climate compensated”,
“reduced climate impact” and “limited CO₂ foot - print”. In conclusion, the advertiser must be able to justify and demonstrate any names, claims or any other ele - ments used for the promotion or sale of a product, as well as the excellent environmental performance related to the advertised product, in order to avoid misleading consumers about the environmental char - acteristics of a product. 2.7 Disclosures Advertisers are responsible for ensuring that all claims, express or implied, are truthful and substantiated. There is no express regulation in Spain on the use of disclosures in advertising, but they must respect the principles of truthfulness and legality applicable to all advertising. To this end, disclaimers and footnotes may be used to disclose any information that is relevant to the adver - tised offering. However, these disclaimers and foot - notes must be incorporated in a place and size that can be easily read by the consumer; otherwise, the advertisement may be considered misleading. 2.8 Other Regulated Claims Spanish legislation does not contain a specific regu - lation on the use of claims, nor on how certain spe - cific claims should be used. This means that each individual case must be analysed on a case-by-case basis. For example, in Spain the promotion of sales with accompanying gifts is perfectly legal and the claim “free” can be used but is subject to certain rules. “Two for one”, “get one free” or “three for two” offers, bonuses, vouchers offering a future discount, or bonus points that allow the customer to obtain free goods in the future, are all common. The gift/prize must be provided within three months of the moment when the consumer fulfils the condi - tion of the promotion (usually the purchase). Moreover, any gift that has been offered on the packaging of the product must be available for at least three months from the end of the promotion. Specific regulations apply to particular types of goods. For example, it is
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