Tenerife court annuls time-sharing rulings over jurisdiction

The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has altered the legal landscape regarding 'time-sharing' or holiday apartment membership disputes. In several recent rulings, the court has declared itself incompetent to resolve conflicts when the clients and companies involved are linked to other countries.

This shift follows a 2024 clarification from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which established that jurisdiction must be determined by the client's country of residence and the company's headquarters, rather than solely the location of the tourist accommodation.

As a result, the court has annulled previous lower court rulings that had favored clients, some of whom were seeking to recover more than £20,000. The court noted that attempting to bring these cases before Spanish courts under certain circumstances creates 'a fiction to try to force the dispute into Spanish jurisdiction' instead of applying the correct international regulations, particularly in cases involving the United Kingdom or the Isle of Man.