The Supreme Court and the General Public Prosecutor’s Office spell out corporate criminal liability in Spain

Corporate criminal liability was first introduced in the Spanish Criminal Code (SCC) by Organic Law 5/2010, leaving behind the settled principle that only individuals could be found criminally liable in Spain. Organic Law 5/2010 introduced Article 31 bis into the SCC, which established the circumstances under which criminal liability could be attributed to legal entities, namely the perpetration of certain criminal offences on behalf and profit of a legal entity, when committed by the following persons: managers or legal representatives of the legal entity, or employees who, acting under the authority of the managers or legal representatives of the legal entity, could have been able to perpetrate the criminal offence as a result of not having been subject to due control