Hi Justin,
I’ve stumbled upon your message whilst looking for a similar info myself.
Now sure if you are still searching 4 some answers, but here’s my twopence.
From what I’ve learnt, in order to do e-commerce legally one needs to obtain the “relevant authorization” (?) and to registered with the Register of Distance Sales Enterprises at the Directorate General of Domestic Trade of the Ministry of Economy. I think there might be a need to register with the Directorate of “non-Domestic” Trade if you intend to sell abroad. I do. But have no info on that one as yet.
If you are going to form a limited company and would like to have an .es domain, the name of the website will have to match the name of your company exactly! I am not sure if this rule extends to any web-site i.e. .com etc. conducting trade from Spain and would very much appreciate if anyone knows anything about it could post a line here.
In a case of a limited company, Central Mercantile Registry would have to be informed of any internet commerce and domain name within 30 days of domain registration (at least for .es domains, not sure about the rest). One would also have to be careful with Spanish regulations on “cyber-squatters” as here it is illigal to grab the domain if you think a person or a company with that name would like to use it in a future or want to have a free ride on someone’s success. And, for example, I can be forced to give up my domain for the benefit of another company, if it can be proven that I registered the domain with a hope of benefiting from that other company’s position on the market, etc… And fined.
And obviousely, a contact tel number, address for postal correspondence, your company CIF would also have to be easily available on your ecommerce website as well as T&C with clear definition of what constitutes a contract (ask me if you need a clarification on this one, I think I might help), return of unwanted goods within a min of 7 days with no penalties etc.
And it goes without saying that you would have to register with Agencia Tributaria (Spanish Inland Revenue) and Seguridad Social (prepare yourself for a 220+ euros monthly payment, no matter whether your make any profit or not).
I’ve seen a LegalShop here in Barcelona offering an advice on e-commerce and their package for what you have to add by law to your website starts with 275 euro + IVA. Have not tried them myself, but they also offer an advice on-line, they speak (or so it seems) English and I am tempted. A fine for the breech on that point is somewhere in the area of 6000 to 600000 euro, nah, doesn’t frighten me 😉 But I was seriousely considering consulting some big Spanish shops for an advice - they surely will have all that is needed on their websites. Use it as a guidance.
Well, I think that’s all I could find until today.
If you have any more info, I would appreciate if you could let me know.
I am tryting to set up an on-line shop myself and sometimes I even think that I can see a distant flickering light at the end of a tunnel!
Oh no, its gone…
Regards,
Sarah
