Over the last few months we assisted in many sanctioning proceedings initiated by various Spanish Harbour Masters and the Directorate General of the Merchant Navy (DGMN) related to the sulphur content of fuels for maritime use used by ships docked and anchored in Spanish ports.
On December 30th, just one day after being published in the “Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE)”, the new Royal Decree 1036/2017 dated December 15th (Real Decreto 1036/2017), by which the civil use of remotely piloted aircrafts is regulated, came into force. This Decree puts an end to the temporary regime introduced by Law 18/2014, dated October 15th, on the approval of urgent measures for growth, competitiveness and efficiency.
In a judgment (number 590/2017) dated 7th November 2017, the Spanish Supreme Court has had the opportunity to clarify conflicting case law from different Courts of Appeals regarding the requirements for the validity of insurance clauses that exclude coverage in cargo theft matters when there has been a failure to keep a proper supervision of the truck or container during transportation.
In a judgment dated 21st September 2017, the Court of Appeals of Barcelona, Section 15, reversing the decision of the first instance court, has considered that damages arising from the cancellation of a flight are covered by article 19 of the Montreal Convention.
The Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in matter C-368/16, dated on the 13th of July of 2017, referred to the court for a preliminary ruling on the following question: can an injured party that has a direct action against the insurer of liability of the party that caused the damage bring an action against the insurer in the place where the harmful event occurred or is the injured party bound by the jurisdiction clause agreed between the insurer and the policy holder? Read more
In order to guarantee a high level of consumer protection with regard to food safety at the official border inspection of products imported from non-EU Countries, the list of border inspection posts has been recently updated. These posts must comply with the minimal legal requirements.
A recent Supreme Court Judgment dated on the 28th of June 2017 has confirmed previous decisions in matters relating to recreational crafts and civil liability insurance, namely:
For any action for damages arising from international air transportation governed by the Montreal Convention of 1999, the Convention establishes the limitation period of 2 years in its article 35 “reckoned from the date of arrival at the destination, or from the date which the aircraft ought to have arrived, or from the date on which the carriage stopped”. Read more
In May 2014, the Directive 2014/47/EU of the European Parliament and the Council, of April 3rd 2014, on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the EU came into force. This Directive updates the regulation of the technical roadside inspections by establishing the minimal requirements for all Member States, in order to improve road safety conditions. The contents of the aforementioned Directive have been incorporated into the Spanish legislation the recently enacted by Royal Decree nº 563/2017 of June 2nd
The Official State Bulletin (BOE) dated May 13th 2017 published the Royal Decree – Law 8/2017 of May 12th which modifies the regulation of workers that provide port cargo handling services and operations, in order to comply with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of December 11th 2014, in the case C-576/13 (infringement proceeding 2009/4052). After several months of debates and negotiations with the affected sectors and since the expectations of the previous RD-law 4/2017 were not fulfilled (and was revoked on March 16th 2017), this Royal Decree is the second attempt of the Spanish Government to regulate the situation of port cargo handling services and operations.