Spain
Stage of Implementation
On 20 December 2022, the Council of Ministers passed a draft law of representative actions for the collective interests of consumers. This draft bill:
- Has the purpose of adapting the Spanish legislation to make it easier for consumers to obtain compensation when a company acts against the law.
- Intends to modify the civil procedure rules to improve the current regime for collective consumer actions and aims to regulate the particularities of the entities that would be allowed to act on behalf of consumers exercising these actions.
- Incorporates two types of actions: those that intend to end wrongful conduct and those that intend to get compensation.
- Includes the possibility of settling an agreement within the litigation process that can be validated by the judge.
- Establishes a requirement for a previous request to the company before initiating the judicial collective claim.
- Chooses the opt-out system.
- Intends to create a public registry of representative actions to let consumers - and anyone else interested - know if there are any collective action claims taking place that concern them.
Please note that there is a public consultation taking place regarding the draft bill. Also, the draft still needs to be discussed in the Spanish Parliament and therefore is subject to change.
Extent to which existing law will require change
Moderate Change
To find out more about the current collective action regime in this jurisdiction click here.
