Marketing Services Agreement in Spain: Template and Key Clauses (2026)

A marketing services agreement in Spain, often a contrato de prestacion de servicios de marketing, is the contract between a company and an agency or freelancer who runs its advertising, content, social media, events or digital campaigns. The commercial points are scope, deliverables and who owns the work. The legal points that matter in Spain are tax, data protection and advertising rules. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm a live deal with a Spanish lawyer. ## What law governs a marketing services agreement in Spain? A marketing services agreement is a service contract (arrendamiento de servicios) governed by the general contract rules in the Codigo Civil, and, where the parties are traders, the Codigo de Comercio. There is no special marketing statute, so the parties have wide freedom to agree their terms. Three bodies of law sit on top: tax (the IVA, Spanish value added tax, applies to the fees), data protection (the RGPD and the Spanish LOPDGDD, supervised by the AEPD), and advertising law (general rules on fair and lawful advertising, with stricter rules for regulated sectors). Confirm the exact statutory references locally before relying on them. ## Scope and deliverables Marketing disputes almost always come from a vague scope. Be concrete. - Services, listed by type: strategy, content, paid media, SEO, social media management, email, events, design.

• Deliverables, with quantities and cadence: so many posts a month, so many campaigns a quarter, named reports.
• Service levels, turnaround times, revision rounds and approval steps.
• Media spend, whether the budget sits with the client or passes through the agency, and how it is reconciled.
• Exclusions, what is out of scope and billed separately. ## Fees, IVA and payment State whether the model is a monthly retainer, a project fee, a performance fee or a mix. Say clearly whether prices are stated without IVA (mas IVA) and the rate that applies. Address pass-through costs (media spend, stock images, third-party tools), expenses, invoicing cadence and late-payment interest. Spanish rules on late payment in commercial transactions set default interest where the contract is silent, so it is better to state the position. ## Intellectual property and ownership of the work This is the clause clients most often get wrong. Under Spanish copyright law (the Ley de Propiedad Intelectual), the creator owns the work unless rights are assigned in writing, and moral rights of the author cannot be waived in the same way as economic rights. So the contract must expressly assign the economic rights in deliverables to the client, define the scope (media, territory, duration), and deal with the agency's reuse of the work in its portfolio. Address third-party assets (fonts, stock, music) and the licences that come with them, and confirm who clears rights for talent, influencers and user-generated content. ## Data protection, RGPD and AEPD Marketing touches personal data constantly: email lists, CRM records, ad-platform audiences, website analytics. If the agency processes personal data on the client's behalf, it is a processor (encargado del tratamiento) and the RGPD requires a written data processing agreement with the mandatory content. For email and electronic marketing, Spanish rules (derived from the ePrivacy regime and the LSSI, the law on information society services) generally require prior consent and an easy opt-out; cookies and tracking need consent under AEPD guidance. Name the AEPD as the supervisory authority and address international transfers if any tool hosts data outside the EU. ## Advertising and consumer rules Spanish advertising law prohibits misleading, unfair and aggressive advertising, and regulated sectors (health, finance, alcohol, gambling, children) carry extra rules. Put the responsibility for legal compliance of claims where it belongs, usually shared, with the client warranting the truth of product claims and the agency warranting that creative execution follows the law. Require influencer and sponsored content to be clearly identified as advertising. ## Other key clauses - Confidentiality, protecting the client's data, strategy and results.
• Exclusivity and non-solicitation, if the agency should not serve direct competitors, say so precisely.
• Performance and reporting, the metrics, the dashboard, the review cadence.
• Liability, a cap and carve-outs, drafted to be enforceable.
• Term and termination, notice, termination for cause, and what happens to live campaigns and prepaid spend.
• Transition on exit, handing over accounts, assets, logins and data.
• Governing law and jurisdiction, Spanish law and a named court or arbitration. ## A simple drafting skeleton 1. Parties and date

2. Definitions (services, deliverables, media spend)
3. Scope of services and deliverables
4. Service levels and approvals
5. Fees, IVA and pass-through costs
6. Intellectual property and assignment of rights
7. Data protection (RGPD processor terms)
8. Advertising and claims compliance
9. Confidentiality
10. Exclusivity and non-solicitation (if any)
11. Performance, reporting and reviews
12. Liability and cap
13. Term, termination and transition
14. Governing law and jurisdiction (Spain)
15. Signatures ## Keeping agency contracts under control If you run several agencies or freelancers, the hard part is not one contract. It is tracking which assignment is live, when each retainer renews, who owns which deliverable, and whether each agreement carries the right RGPD processor terms. That work, drafting from a tuned template, flagging risky clauses, tracking renewals and keeping versions straight, is what an AI contract workspace can hold in one place. Adira is built for this, with per-clause risk review, plain-English clause editing and a live activity timeline; it is India-first today with other jurisdictions on its roadmap, so verify local depth before relying on it for Spanish law. More at Adira. The law above stands on its own. ## Bottom line A Spanish marketing services agreement is a service contract under the Codigo Civil, so the parties set most of the terms. Spend your drafting time on scope and deliverables, a written assignment of intellectual property, clear IVA and pass-through treatment, and solid RGPD and advertising compliance. Get Spanish advice before signing a real deal.