Offshoring is usually analysed as a question of cost, of language availability and of time zone. It is also a question of applicable law, and the answer is less favourable than the commercial case tends to assume.
Ley 10/2025 applies to undertakings established in Spain or in any other State, provided they operate in Spanish territory. The connecting factor is the market served, not the place of establishment — which means the regime follows the customer rather than the centre.
The Spanish requirements, for an offshored operation
| Matter | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | Providers of services of general interest — water, gas, electricity, transport, post, electronic communications, financial services — and all large undertakings in any sector: 250 or more employees, turnover above €50 million or a balance sheet above €43 million |
| Territorial reach | Applies to undertakings established in Spain or in another State, provided they operate in Spanish territory |
| Waiting time | 95 % of calls answered, on average, in under three minutes |
| Human attention | Exclusively automated service prohibited; the customer may request an operator from the main menu |
| Escalation | Right to a supervisor or quality department within three minutes |
| Response to complaints | Fifteen working days; two hours for service-continuity incidents; five days for billing |
| Enforcement | Regional consumer authorities, under the general consumer protection framework |
| Fully enforceable | 28 December 2026 |
Portugal is the EU offshoring destination with the highest relative penetration, and a substantial share of that capacity serves the Spanish market. Those operations fall within the Spanish regime, whose waiting-time and human-attention requirements are materially more demanding than the Portuguese ones.
They also tend not to know it, because the regime is not Portuguese and therefore does not appear in Portuguese compliance registers, in Portuguese legal updates, or in the regulatory monitoring the operation actually performs.
What this site addresses
Each has a concrete answer on the solutions page.
Spanish exposure not identified
The operation serves Spanish customers from another State and its regulatory monitoring covers only the law of the State where it sits.
View solutionOne metric for two incompatible obligations
Service levels are reported on a single measure, which cannot simultaneously express a per-call ceiling and a statistical average, so one of the two obligations is not actually being measured.
View solutionObligations lost at the offshoring contract
The contracting entity is subject to the Spanish regime and the contract with the offshore provider reflects only the requirements of the provider’s own jurisdiction.
View solutionServices
Bounded products, with defined scope, method and deliverables.
Multi-Jurisdiction Exposure Assessment
Determination of which national regimes apply to an operation serving more than one Member State
SpecificationOutsourcing Governance for Customer Service
Contractual chain, propagation of obligations and verification of the provider
SpecificationMystery Call Verification
Independent measurement of waiting time, menu structure and identification, by anonymous call
SpecificationWhere to go next
Framework
The subject matter, the applicable regime and what has changed in recent years.
ReadMarket
Who is covered, by category of undertaking, and with what priority.
ViewTraining
Training paths on the applicable regulatory framework.
View programmesFAQ
The questions that always come up, answered with a source.
ConsultDiscuss your case
A concrete question gets a concrete answer. Enquiries are routed directly and answered within three working days.