Claims within fifteen business days: the new customer service law

The Cortes Generales have approved Law 10/2025, of 26 December, regulating customer service, published in the «Boletín Oficial del Estado» No. 312, of 27 December 2025. The regulation sets maximum time limits for resolving consumer complaints and requires companies to respond in the same language in which the complaint was made. The law, sanctioned by King Felipe VI and countersigned by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, entered into force on the day following its publication, 28 December 2025.

The law originated from a Government initiative submitted to the Congress of Deputies on 29 February 2024 and was processed under the urgent procedure with 234 amendments to the articles. Approved by the Plenary of the Congress on 13 November 2025 and by the Senate on 3 December 2025, it received final approval from the Lower House on 11 December 2025. The text, structured in four chapters and 23 articles, amends the consolidated text of the General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users (Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007), the Law 3/1991 on Unfair Competition, the Organic Law 3/2018 on Data Protection, and the Law 11/2022, General Telecommunications Law.

Maximum time limits for resolution

Article 17 of Law 10/2025 establishes a scale of time limits depending on the nature of the problem:

• Fifteen business days from submission for inquiries, complaints, claims or incidents, regardless of the medium used, unless sectoral regulations set a different period.
• Two hours for inquiries or incidents concerning continuity of service, such as cuts or suspensions, in contracts of successive performance linked to basic services of general interest; the company must inform of the causes and the estimated time for service restoration.
• Five days for inquiries, complaints, claims or incidents related to billing or improper charges.

Response in the same language

The resolution must be duly reasoned and respond to all the issues raised, with no generic replies permitted, and the processing may not be closed merely by the lapse of the time limit if this is not attributable to the customer. The response shall be provided in the same language in which the inquiry, complaint, claim or incident was submitted: customers may submit them in Spanish or in any of the official languages when the service is directed at persons located in autonomous communities with their own language, and companies must ensure service in the requested official language wherever they provide service.

Who the law applies to

The law applies to large companies and excludes microenterprises and SMEs —those employing fewer than 250 workers and whose annual turnover does not exceed 50 million euros or whose balance sheet total does not exceed 43 million—, also taking into account groups of companies. Basic services of general interest are always included:

• Water and energy supply and distribution.
• Financial, insurance, postal and healthcare services.
• Air passenger transport, rail transport, and passenger transport by bus or coach.

In these continuously provided services, the customer service channel for continuity incidents must be available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Guarantees and sanctions regime

• Identification code and written proof on a durable medium for each query, complaint, claim or incident.
• Prohibition on suspending the continuing service after submitting a claim directly related to the reason for the suspension.
• Prohibition on conducting satisfaction surveys before resolution of the matter.

Non-compliance is sanctioned as a consumer infringement in accordance with the regime of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, and the law repeals Articles 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 of Order ECO/734/2004, on customer service for financial institutions.

The new law makes legally binding a set of deadlines that until now depended on each company, with special protection for basic supplies and vulnerable consumers. It directly affects the sectors with the most complaints with consumer authorities: telecommunications, energy, water, banking, insurance and transport.

Source: Official State Gazette, No. 312, of 27 December 2025 (official reference: Law 10/2025, of 26 December, regulating customer service).