Can I take a company in Spain to court in the UK?

[Barbarah]

They say in their T + C I can, but how to serve as their address is in Barcelona?

[R0b]

Hi,

You may want to think about going ahead with this based on what I am about to say so here's an short explanation below.

1. You can't use Money Claims Online, you will need to use the N1 Claim Form.

2. Where you want to serve the claim form to a company outside the UK, you will likely need permission from the court to do so unless you can show that you don't require permission. The rules are not easy to follow and understand so you should tread carefully. An application for permission to serve outside England and Wales will set you back £275.

3. Let's assume you serve the claim form with the court's permission, and the company fails to file a defence so you obtain a default judgment. How do you expect to enforce the judgment if they are based in Spain? When we used to be in the EU, there was legislation that applied across the EU so that it was made easier for claimants to use the judgment they obtained in the own country and ask a court in the other country to authorise that judgment so that you could enforce it legally in that country. Unfortunately that is no longer the case now we are out of the EU.

You would need to make an application to the court in that country and request them to accept your judgment and turn it into a local enforceable judgment. The problem is most countries have policies and criteria to determine whether they should authorise a foreign judgment. It's costly, most likely require a translation of the judgment decision, the court order and then on top of that you will probably have to get a Spanish lawyer to act on your behalf unless you can represent yourself and speak in Spanish. Even after all of that, those costs you have incurred may not even be recoverable against the company, especially if they don't have the means to pay any of it in which case you have wasted all of that money.

So to summarise, costs, costs and more costs. Unless you have the financial means and your claim is for a large five figure sum or greater, it is unlikely to be worth pursuing.

Does the company have any physical presence in the UK?