SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Iñigo Igartua Arregui, Eduardo Gómez de la Cruz, Andrea Díez de Uré and Jesús Urriza Rodríguez, Gómez-Acebo & Pombo
No effect of press releases or web publication The mere publication of a press release or the avail - ability of the NCA’s decision on its website does not suffice to trigger the limitation period. The CJEU and Spanish courts have repeatedly held that it would be unreasonable to expect injured parties to monitor such publications or to consider themselves in pos - session of all necessary information before the deci - sion is final and all appeals are exhausted. 3.2 Typical Length of Private Antitrust Litigation The duration of private antitrust litigation is highly vari - able and depends on numerous factors, including the complexity of the case, the volume of evidence or the number of parties involved. The time taken to reach judgment in first instance can vary, but in complex antitrust cases, it is not uncom - mon for the process from filing to first-instance judg - ment to take between one and two years. The appel - late process can add an additional one to three years, or more, to the overall duration, especially if the case reaches the Supreme Court or involves preliminary references to the Court of Justice of the European Union. As mentioned in 1.2 Recent Developments , a draft law on collective actions is still in the first stage of the legislative process. The question of whether the law (if passed as it is) covers collective actions for dam - ages arising from antitrust infringements has been a subject of debate. In any case, the draft law would only be applicable for class or collective actions on behalf of consumers. In the next sections responses will be based on the current version of the draft law and will assume – for the purposes of this chapter in the Antitrust Litigation guide – that antitrust litigation (on behalf of consum - ers) will be covered. 4. Class and Collective Actions 4.1 Statutory Basis
provided by Article 1968.2 of the Spanish Civil Code. The dies a quo (starting point) was the moment when the injured party became aware of the facts giving rise to liability, which entailed knowledge of the essential information necessary to bring an action for damages. Post-Directive regime With the entry into force of Article 74.1 of the LDC, as amended by Royal Decree-Law 9/2017 imple - menting the Damages Directive, the limitation period was extended to five years. This period begins when the claimant knows or can reasonably be expected to know: (a) the conduct and the fact that it consti - tutes an infringement of competition law, (b) the harm caused by said infringement, and (c) the identity of the infringer (Article 74.2 of the LDC). Transitional regime and non-retroactivity The substantive rules of the Damages Directive on limitation periods do not have retroactive effect. How - ever, if, at the date of expiry of the transposition period for the Directive (27 December 2016), the limitation period under the previous regime had not expired, the new five-year period applies to actions not yet time-barred (see CJEU, 22 June 2022, C-267/20, DAF & Volvo). Actions already time-barred under the old regime cannot be revived. Impact of NCA Decisions on Limitation Periods Requirement of a final decision Even before the judgment from the ECJ in Case C/21/24, Nissan Iberia, the Spanish Supreme Court has recently established that, in follow-on actions based on a Spanish NCA decision, the limitation peri - od does not begin to run until the decision becomes final. According to the Supreme Court, only at that point does the injured party possess the full set of fac - tual and legal elements necessary to litigate, includ - ing certainty as to the existence and scope of the infringement (judgment No 889/2025 dated 5 June, ECLI:ES:TS:2025:2621 and judgment No 971/2 025, dated 17 June, ECLI:ES:TS:2025:2857, both issued in the envelopes cartel litigation). However, this does not prevent the filing of claims before a Final Deci - sion exists; a situation that has arisen often so far but which may change after these Supreme Court rulings.
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