International / Spain and Europe, for companies from any market.
Financial services, retail and travel in Spain
Year One Partners works with companies from any country that bring a consumer-facing digital product to Spain: financial services, retail and ecommerce, and travel platforms. In these sectors, the customer is at the centre and regulation protects them. Licences and authorisations, consumer law, data protection and, depending on the product, specific supervision determine what can launch now and what has to wait. Digital speeds up entry, but it replaces neither the authorisation nor the trust of the market. We help you set that sequence, with a senior lead who coordinates your specialists without replacing them. Our reach is international: Spain and Europe, for companies from any market.
Financial services
Financial services companies entering Spain work with highly regulated supervisors, clients and partners. Depending on the activity, the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) or the Directorate-General for Insurance and Pension Funds may be involved, and anti-money laundering obligations apply. We help you sequence, with your legal advisers, the entry steps and the counterparts, and coordinate your specialists. You will find how we help you sequence authorisation processes, with your legal advisers, in licensing and authorisations. Before launch, it helps to know which products can be offered from day one and which need prior authorisation, and how consumer and data protection rules apply to each. We help you prepare that map with your advisers, so that the business plan and the regulatory timetable match.
Retail and ecommerce
Selling online to Spanish consumers is quick to start and easy to get wrong. National consumer protection law, regional consumer and retail rules, distance selling requirements, Spanish-language labelling and data protection, supervised by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), all affect the store, the contract and the advertising. Online platforms and marketplaces also carry their own European obligations on digital services, stricter for the largest ones. We help you separate what must be ready on day one, choose logistics and technology partners and decide whether to enter alone, through a distributor or through an acquisition. If entry runs through an acquisition or a joint venture, we test the thesis before capital is committed and coordinate your M&A advisers.
Travel
Travel and accommodation platforms operate in a sector where regional government plays a central role. Tourism is largely a regional competence in Spain: the regions regulate travel agencies and tourist accommodation through their own registers, and there are national and European rules on package travel as well as obligations to record traveller data. We help you sequence, with your advisers, the requirements of each region where you want to operate, and understand which local partners make sense and how to prepare the relationship with tourism authorities and industry associations through our institutional relations service.
Frequently asked questions
Which supervisor is involved in my case?
It depends on the activity. Your legal advisers confirm this before launch; we sequence the steps and the counterparts from that answer.
What if my company is from outside the European Union?
It depends on the activity: many regulated financial services require an entity authorised in Spain or another EU member state. Your legal advisers confirm this; we help you sequence the possible routes.
Do you replace our lawyers or our compliance team?
No. We are not a law firm, an audit firm or a regulated investment firm, and we do not provide legal advice. We coordinate your specialists without replacing them and keep the business decision at the centre.
Where do I start?
With the decision you have to defend before your board. From there we build a Spain market entry plan: what comes first, who to talk to and what can wait until a second phase.