SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Alfonso López-Ibor, Pablo Henriquez de Luna, Virginia Jover and Pedro Echeguren, Lopez-Ibor DPM
claimant’s court agent may also request to be authorised to personally carry out the notifica- tion. If the claimant fails or is unable to correctly designate a place where the defendant may be located, the court may use any means at its dis- posal to find the defendant, such as consulting public or official registries. Under Spanish law, serving a claim abroad requires following the procedure set out in either: • Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 on the service in the member states of judicial and extrajudi- cial documents in civil or commercial mat- ters, if the complaint is being served in an EU member state; or • the Hague Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extraju- dicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Mat- ters, if the complaint is being served outside the EU. 3.6 Failure to Respond If the defendant does not file a statement of defence or opposition within 20 business days after it is served (or ten business days in the case of minor oral trials), the proceedings will con- tinue in its absence. In such a case, the court will declare the defendant in default. Being in default does not imply an acceptance of the claim or an admission of the facts of the claim by the party under such condition as it may appear at any stage during the proceedings. 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions Spanish law allows for representative or collec- tive actions to be filed: • to defend the “collective interest” of consum- ers, which may be brought by a consumer
association or other authorised legal entity as long as the claimants are individually identi- fied or are easily identifiable; • to protect the “widespread interests” of consumers, which may be brought by a representative consumer association for the protection of the common interests of con- sumers whose identity is unknown or difficult to determine; and • to protect the equality of gender or non-dis- crimination based on gender, sexual orienta- tion or other personal characteristics. Additionally, pursuant to Directive 2009/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on injunctions for the protection of consumers’ interests, public prosecutors and certain qualified bodies of any EU member state are allowed to seek injunctions for the protection of consumers’ interests in Spain. The Spanish legal system provides that individu- al consumers can freely “opt in” but they cannot “opt out” of the proceedings, as once joined, they will be bound by the final judgment. Section 15 of the SCPA guarantees that all indi- vidual consumers are aware of the proceedings and have the opportunity to join: • once the admission of the complaint is pub- lished in the media of the territory where the damages occurred; and • if the members of the group are identifiable, the claimant could send an individual letter to all of them prior to filing the complaint. 3.8 Requirements for Cost Estimate Lawyers must provide clients with estimated fees as soon as possible, usually in written form.
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