On 28 April 2021, the Royal Decree Law 7/2021, of 27 April, on the transposition of European Union directives on competition, prevention of money laundering, credit institutions, telecommunications, tax measures, prevention and remedying of environmental damage, posting of workers in the provision of transnational services and consumer protection (hereinafter, “Royal Decree Law 7/2021”) was published in the Spanish Official State Gazette (“BOE”).

The aim of aforementioned regulation is the transposition into the Spanish legal system of several European directives[1] which required an immediate action from the national legislator. Among such directives, it should be highlighted the Directive (EU) 2019/770 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services ("Directive 2019/770").

As a consequence of the transposition of Directive 2019/770, relevant amendments have been introduced in the Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, of 16 November, which approves the revised text of the General Law on Consumers and Users Protection and other supplementary laws (hereinafter, "LGDCU").

Some of the main amendments introduced in the LGDCU are the following:

A) Scope of application

The scope of application of the LGDCU is extended to all contracts for the supply of digital services in which the consumer or user undertakes to provide personal data.

Therefore, contracts for digital content or services in which the consumer or user does not pay a price but obtains the goods or services by providing personal data, will be included within the scope of application of the LGDCU.

B) Delivery of goods and supply of digital content or services

Article 66 bis of the LGDCU regulates the conditions of delivery of digital content or services that are not provided on a tangible medium, establishing, among other issues, that the trader must provide them without undue delay after the conclusion of the contract with the consumer.

C) Warranty and after-sales services

One of the main novelties is the extension of the warranty term of Article 120 of the LGDCU, which is of two years until the entry into force of the amendments, and after the transposition of Directive 2019/770, the referred warranty becomes three years from the delivery of tangible goods, and two years in the case of digital content or services.

Likewise, unless proved otherwise, any lack of conformity expressed by consumers two years after the delivery of the good, or in the following year of the supply of the digital content or service, shall be presumed to have existed at the time of delivery of the good or supply of the service. Therefore, the burden of proof to demonstrate the conformity of the product or service shall be on the trader in case the consumer claims a lack of conformity during within the mentioned time limits.

Thus, under this amendment, a period of three years is established for the lack of conformity to become apparent and a period of two years for the presumption that any lack of conformity that becomes apparent existed at the time of delivery of the goods.

Regarding the right of redress and after-sales services, the minimum period for which the trader must maintain the existence of spare parts is extended to ten years (five years before the amendment).

A summary table of the main amendments with regard to warranty and after-sales services is provided below:

The amendments introduced in the LGDCU will enter into force on 1 January 2022 as stated in the eighth final provision of Royal Decree Law 7/2021.