New and Improved Consumer Rights in Spain
- By Maxine --
- 01 Jun 2021 --
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There’s good news for consumers in Spain as their rights will improve from 1 Jan 2022. Find out all you need to know in our guide.
What are your current consumer rights?
At the moment most items come with a two-year guarantee. Also, after six months the consumer has to prove that any fault was present at the time of purchase. Due to this limitation, many consumers have found that manufacturers have disputed any claims.
Additionally now manufacturers are only obliged to guarantee the availability of repair parts for five years once the item has been discontinued.
In order to reduce programmed obsolescence and provide consumers with more and better rights, a new law has been approved.
What are the new consumer rights?
First of all most items will now come with a three-year guarantee, except for digital items or services which will be two years.
But what’s probably of more interest is a change in the period during which faults can be disputed. This was previously six-months, but when the new law comes into force will increase to two years. With this increase consumers will no longer have to prove that the item was faulty at the time of purchase, but that it simply no longer works as it should.
The right to repair has also seen an improvement. Spare parts will have to be available for 10 years once an item has been discontinued.
What does this mean for you?
From 1 Jan 2022 you will be more protected when buying items, especially expensive electronics or home appliances. With the right to repair you should also see a reduction in the need to buy a new item simply because it can no longer be repaired.
As regards digital products, the new law includes computer software, apps, games, videos, audio, ebooks and other digital publications.
Although we still need to see how it works in practice, the new law will allow the consumer to decide whether an item be repaired or substituted whilst under guarantee. Previously this right sat with the manufacturer or seller.
