Spain. The Product Regulation and Liability Review

In the Spanish legal system, product liability regulations were to be found, until 2007, in Article 1902 of the Civil Code (CC), which used to set out the rules concerning liability in tort; in the General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users; and in the Defective Products Liability Act, which transposed the EU Product Liability Directive.

The moment at which the product had been put into circulation determined which particular set of rules applied. For these purposes, ‘putting into circulation’ meant the voluntary delivery of the product by the manufacturer, which, for practical purposes, meant distributing the product or making it available to the relevant persons.

Under the Defective Products Liability Act’s final provision, this Act applied to those instances of product liability in which the relevant product had been put into circulation after 8 July 1994 (i.e., on the day following the entry into force of the Defective Products Liability Act). The General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users applied to any products put into circulation between 13 August 1984 and 8 July 1994. And Article 1902 of the CC applied to any products put into circulation before the General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users entered into force (i.e., before 13 August 1984).

Where one particular set of rules applied, the rest did not, and the moment at which a product was put into circulation determined which set of rules applied.

The rules differed in matters such as the identification of the person responsible, the circle of possible injured persons and the damages covered. However, the underlying purpose of all sets of rules and the definition of a defective product were the same. The latter was explicitly addressed in the EU Product Liability Directive and the Defective Products Liability Act, which transposed the Directive.

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