Spanish Criminal Code: Market, Consumer, and Corporate Offenses

Posted on Dec 13, 2024 in Law & Jurisprudence

**Market and Consumers**

**Article 278**

  1. Anyone who, by any means, discovers a company secret by seizing data, written or electronic documents, computer media, or other objects related thereto, or employs any of the means or instruments referred to in paragraph 1 of Article 197, shall be punished with imprisonment from two to four years and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months.
  2. The penalty of imprisonment of three to five years and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months shall be imposed if the discovered secrets are disseminated, disclosed, or ceded to a third party.
  3. The provisions of this Article shall be without prejudice to the penalties that may be imposed for the seizure or destruction of computer storage media.

**Article 279**

The dissemination, disclosure, or transfer of a business secret by any person having a legal or contractual obligation to maintain its confidentiality shall be punished with imprisonment from two to four years and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months. If the secrecy is used to their advantage, the penalties will be imposed in the lower half.

**Article 280**

Whoever, with knowledge of the illicit origin and without having taken part in its discovery, commits any of the acts described in the two preceding articles shall be punished with imprisonment from one to three years and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months.

**Article 281**

  1. Whoever removes raw materials or primary commodities from the market with the intention of creating a shortage in a sector, forcing a change in prices, or causing serious harm to consumers, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months.
  2. The higher penalty will be imposed if the act was performed in emergency situations of serious need or catastrophe.

**Article 282**

Manufacturers or merchants who, in the tender or advertising of products or services, make false claims or demonstrate uncertain characteristics about them, so that they can cause serious and visible damage to consumers, shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to a year or a fine of twelve to twenty-four months, without prejudice to the penalty for the commission of other crimes.

**Article 283**

A prison sentence of six months to a year and a fine of six to eighteen months shall be imposed on anyone who, to the detriment of the consumer, invoices higher amounts for products or services whose cost or price is measured by automatic devices, by altering or tampering with them.

**Article 284**

A penalty of imprisonment of six months to two years or a fine of twelve to twenty-four months shall be imposed on anyone who, by spreading false news, using violence, threats, or deception, or using insider information, attempts to alter the prices that would result from free competition of products, commodities, securities, services, or any other movable or immovable object of procurement, without prejudice to the penalty that may be applicable for other crimes.

**Article 285**

  1. Whoever, directly or through an intermediary, uses any information relevant to the price of any class of securities or instruments traded in an organized, official, or recognized market, to which they have had restricted access in the performance of their professional or business activity, or supplies it to obtain for themselves or for a third party an economic benefit exceeding 600,000 euros, or causing injury in the same amount, shall be punished with imprisonment from one to four years, a fine of three times the profit made or favored, and disqualification from the exercise of the profession or activity for between two and five years.
  2. A penalty of imprisonment from four to six years, a fine of three times the profit made or favored, and disqualification from the exercise of the profession or activity for two to five years shall be imposed when, in the conduct described in the preceding paragraph, one of the following circumstances concurs:
  3. The subjects routinely engage in such abusive practices.
The benefit is of obvious importance. Serious harm is caused to general interests.

**Article 286**

  1. Anyone who, without the consent of the provider and for commercial purposes, provides access to an intelligible sound or television broadcasting service, interactive services provided at a distance via electronics, or provides conditional access to the same, considered as a separate service, through:
  2. The manufacture, importation, distribution, making available electronically, sale, rental, or possession of any equipment or software not authorized in another Member State of the European Union, designed or adapted to give access.
The installation, maintenance, or replacement of equipment or software referred to in paragraph 1. The same punishment shall be imposed on anyone who, for profit, alters or duplicates the identification number of telecommunications equipment, or markets equipment that has been fraudulently altered. Anyone who, without profit, provides access to third parties as described in paragraph 1, or by means of public communication, commercial or otherwise, provides information to a plurality of people on how to obtain unauthorized access to a service or the use of a device or program, from those expressed in that paragraph 1, prompting them to achieve it, shall be subject to the penalty of a fine. A person using equipment or programming that allows unauthorized access to conditional access services or telecommunications equipment shall be liable to the penalty provided in the article.

**Article 287. Common Provisions**

  1. To proceed with the crimes provided for in Section III of this chapter, a complaint from the aggrieved person or their legal representatives shall be required. When the aggrieved person is a minor, incompetent, or a disabled person, the prosecution may also file a complaint.
  2. The report in the previous paragraph will not be required when the commission of the crime affects the general interests or a group of people.

**Article 288**

In the cases mentioned in the previous articles, provision is made for the publication of the sentence in the official newspapers and, if requested by the injured person, the judge or court may order the total or partial reproduction in any news media at the expense of the convicted person. In addition, the judge or court, in light of the circumstances, may adopt the measures envisaged in Article 129 of this Code.

**Abduction of One’s Own Thing or Cultural Social Utility**

**Article 289**

Anyone who by any means destroys, disables, or harms something of their own that has social or cultural utility, or otherwise evades compliance with the legal duties imposed in the interests of the community, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to five months or a fine of six to ten months.

**Corporate Crimes**

**Article 290**

Managers, in fact or in law, of a company incorporated or in the process of incorporation, who falsify the financial statements or other documents that must reflect the economic status of the entity, in a manner suitable to cause economic harm to it, any of its partners, or third parties, will be punished with imprisonment from one to three years and a fine of six to twelve months. If economic damage is caused, the penalties will be imposed in the upper half.

**Article 291**

Those who, taking advantage of their majority status in the shareholders’ meeting or board of any company formed or in formation, impose improper agreements for their own profit or that of someone else, to the detriment of the other partners, and without reporting benefits thereto, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to three years or a fine of three times the profit.

**Article 292**

The same sentence as in the preceding article shall be imposed on those who take the opportunity to impose, on themselves or a third party, to the detriment of the company or any of its partners, an agreement adopted by a fictitious majority obtained by abuse of blank signatures, improper allocation of voting rights to those who lack the same by law, unlawful denial of the exercise of this right to those who are recognized by law, or by any other similar means or procedure, and without prejudice to punishing the act as applicable if it would constitute another offense.

**Article 293**

Administrators, in fact or in law, of any company formed or in formation, who without legal grounds refuse or make it impossible for a partner to exercise their rights to information, participation in the management or control of social activity, or pre-emption of shares approved by the Law, shall be punished by a fine of six to twelve months.

**Article 294**

Those who, as administrators in fact or in law of any company formed or in formation, subject to or acting in markets subject to administrative supervision, refuse or hinder the performance of individuals, agencies, or entities inspecting or supervising, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to three years or a fine of twelve to twenty-four months. In addition to the penalties provided in the preceding paragraph, the court may enact some of the measures provided for in section 129 of this Code.

**Article 295**

Administrators in fact or in law or members of any company formed or in formation who, for the benefit of themselves or a third party, abuse the functions of their office, dispose of the assets of the company, or enter into obligations, directly causing economically assessable damage to their members, depositors, account holders, or owners of property, assets, and capital it manages, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to four years or a fine of three times the profit.

**Article 296**

  1. The facts described in this Chapter shall be prosecuted by complaint of the aggrieved person or their legal representative. When the aggrieved person is a minor, incompetent, or a disabled person, the Public Prosecutor may also file a complaint.
  2. The report in the previous paragraph will not be required when the commission of the crime affects the general interests or a plurality of persons.

**Article 297**

For the purposes of this chapter, a cooperative society, savings bank, mutual financial institution or credit, trust, corporation, or other entity of a similar nature that, in the fulfillment of its purposes, permanently participates in the market is considered a company.

**Industrial Property**

**Article 273**

  1. Anyone who, for industrial or commercial purposes, without the consent of the holder of a patent or utility model, and with knowledge of its registration, manufactures, imports, possesses, uses, offers, or introduces into commerce objects covered by such rights, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months.
  2. The same penalties will be imposed on anyone who, in the same way and for the said purpose, uses or offers the use of a patented procedure, or possesses, offers, introduces into commerce, or uses the product directly obtained by the patented procedure.
  3. The same penalties shall be imposed on anyone who commits any of the acts defined in the first paragraph of this article, with the same circumstances, in relation to objects protected by a third-party industrial or artistic design or the topography of a semiconductor product.

**Article 274**

  1. Anyone who, for industrial or commercial purposes, without the consent of the owner of a registered industrial property right under trademark law and with knowledge of the registration, reproduces, imitates, modifies, or otherwise uses a distinctive sign identical or confusingly similar to that, to distinguish the same or similar products, services, activities, or businesses for which the industrial property right is registered, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months. The same penalty shall be imposed on those who knowingly import these products without such consent, whether they have a legal or illegal origin in their country of origin. However, the importation of those goods from a state belonging to the European Union is not punishable when those have been acquired directly from the owner of the rights of that State, or with their consent.
  2. The same penalties will be imposed on anyone who knowingly possesses for marketing, or puts into trade, goods or services with distinctive signs that, in accordance with paragraph 1 above, constitute an infringement of the exclusive rights of the holder of the same, even in the case of products imported from abroad.
  3. Anyone who, for agricultural or commercial purposes, without the consent of the holder of a certificate of plant variety and with knowledge of its registration, produces or reproduces, prepares for the purpose of production or reproduction, offers for sale, sells or otherwise markets, exports or imports, or possesses for any of these purposes, plant material for propagation of a plant variety protected under plant variety legislation, shall be punished with the same penalty.
  4. The same penalty shall be imposed on anyone who performs any of the acts described in the previous section using, under the name of a protected plant variety, plant material for propagation that does not belong to that variety.

**Article 275**

The same penalties provided for in the preceding article shall be imposed on anyone who intentionally and without authority to do so, uses in trade a designation of origin or geographical indication representative of a legally specified quality protected to distinguish the goods covered by them, with knowledge of this protection.

**Article 276**

A penalty of imprisonment of one to four years, a fine of twelve to twenty-four months, and disqualification from the exercise of the profession related to the crime for a period of two to five years shall be imposed when any of the following circumstances are present: a. The economic benefit is of special significance. b. The acts are of particular gravity, taking into account the value of the unlawfully produced objects or the particular importance of the damage caused. c. The offender belongs to an organization or association, including a transitional one, whose purpose is the realization of activities infringing industrial property rights. d. Children under 18 years of age are used to commit these crimes.

**Article 277**

Anyone who intentionally discloses the invention covered by a secret patent application, in contravention of the provisions of patent law, whenever it is to the detriment of national defense, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine of six to twenty-four months.

**Commentary on Part of the Text**

**First Part of the Text**

After reading the first part of the text, and bringing the facts to the legal side, we would be facing a criminal offense consisting of robbery with violence or intimidation against persons, as defined in Article 242 of the Criminal Code (CP). Since there is an attack against property (the pig), producing an impairment of the health and physical integrity of Martha. The subject of the action uses a club to commit the crime and protect their flight, which we derive at a compounded rate of CP Article 242.2. We could take account of the violence or intimidation exercised in case we need to assess the circumstances of fact, since there is little violence in the form of a blow to the head of Martha, who was the chief obstacle to the commission of the act (lesser sentence degree) Article 242.3 CP. We rule out a possible crime of injury, since the text does not specify the type of wounds.

**Second Part of the Text**

In this second part of the text, the animal has changed ownership and is removed from its real owners, Tom and Martha, who complain to its current owner, a butcher, that the pork is theirs. The butcher (recognizing that he knows that the animal has been stolen) and besides, he knows and expresses the modest price he paid for it. Legally, we could take into account the figure of preparatory acts, and the complicity and responsibility of the butcher and the subject who performs the action, cooperating in the implementation of the act and using another to perform it.

**Third Part of the Text**

Tom and Agnes are with the thief. Tom demands action and the money raised from the sale of the pork, to which the individual brandishes a knife at Tom. Tom responds by discharging a hammer against his attacker, who falls to the floor unconscious. We could be facing a possible negligent homicide because the intention of both apparently is not to kill but to injure his opponent. The following circumstances exist on the criminal responsibility:”defense. Rational necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it” – Attenuating. The act is caused by such powerful causes or stimuli that have produced intoxication, blindness, or another state of a similar passionate entity. If the result is death, we could be talking about a misdemeanor or felony of injury according to the seriousness of them, both those caused by the thief on Tom with the use of the knife, and those caused by Tom on the thief with the use of the hammer. The pain would be aggravated due to the use of weapons.

**Receiving and Related Behaviors**

**Article 298**

  1. Anyone who, for profit and with knowledge of the commission of a crime against property or the socio-economic order, in which they have not been involved either as author or as an accomplice, assists those responsible to take advantage of the effects thereof, or receives, acquires, or hides these for such purposes, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to two years.
  2. This penalty shall be imposed in the upper half on anyone who receives, acquires, or hides the effects of the crime in order to traffic them. If the trafficking is done using a local establishment or trade or industry, a further penalty of a fine of twelve to twenty-four months will be imposed. In these cases, judges or courts, considering the seriousness of the act and the personal circumstances of the offender, may also impose the penalty of disqualification from the exercise of their profession or industry for a period of two to five years, and agree on the extent of temporary or permanent closure of the establishment or premises. If the closure is temporary, its duration may not exceed five years.
  3. In no case may a prison sentence be imposed in excess of that prescribed for the crime concealed. If it were punished otherwise, the custodial sentence will be replaced by a fine of twelve to twenty-four months, unless the crime has been assigned undercover or is worth less, in which case, the penalty for that crime in the lower half will be imposed on the culprit.

**Article 299**

  1. Anyone who, for profit and with knowledge of the commission of acts constituting offenses against property, usually exploits or assists offenders to benefit from the effects thereof, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to a year.
  2. If the impact of trafficking receives or acquires them, the penalty is at the upper end and, if they are performed in local events open to the public, a fine of twelve to twenty-four months shall be imposed in addition. In these cases, the courts or tribunals, considering the gravity of the offense and the offender’s personal circumstances, may also impose a penalty of disqualification from the exercise of their profession or industry for a period of one to three years, and agree on the measure of temporary or permanent closure of the establishment or premises. If the closure is temporary, its duration shall not exceed five years.

**Article 300**

The provisions of this Chapter shall apply even if the author or accomplice of the fact from which the effects come is irresponsible or was personally exempt from punishment.

**Article 301**

  1. Anyone who acquires, converts, or transfers property, knowing that it has its origin in a crime, or performs any other act to conceal or disguise its illicit origin or to help the person involved in the offense or offenses to evade the consequences of their legal acts, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to six years and a fine of three times the value of the property. In these cases, judges or courts, considering the seriousness of the act and the offender’s personal circumstances, may also impose a penalty of disqualification from the exercise of their profession or industry for a period of one to three years, and agree on the extent of temporary or permanent closure of the establishment or premises. If the closure is temporary, its duration may not exceed five years. The penalty shall be imposed at the upper end where the goods originate in any of the crimes linked to trafficking of toxic drugs, narcotics, or psychotropic substances described in Articles 368 to 372 of this Code. In such cases, the provisions contained in section 374 of this Code shall apply.
  2. The same penalties shall be imposed, as appropriate, for the concealment or disguise of the true nature, source, location, destination, movement, or rights to property or ownership of the same, knowing that they come from any of the crimes specified in the preceding section or from an act of participation in them.
  3. If the acts were done by negligence, the penalty shall be imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine of three times the value.
  4. The guilty will be punished even if the crime from which the property originated, or the criminal acts in the preceding paragraphs, were committed in whole or in part abroad.
  5. If the offender had made a profit, it will be confiscated under the provisions of Article 127 of this Code.

**Article 302**

  1. In the cases referred to in the preceding article, imprisonment shall be imposed in the upper half for those who belong to an organization dedicated to the purposes specified therein, and the higher penalty shall be imposed on leaders, managers, and administrators of the aforementioned organizations.
  2. In such cases, judges or courts shall impose appropriate penalties in addition, including the inmate’s specific disqualification from the exercise of their profession or industry for a period of three to six years, confiscation of the property subject to the crime, and products and benefits directly or indirectly obtained.