Refusal to apply the article 6.3 of the Spanish Civil Code that establishes the nullity for breaches of binding rules in cases of the infringement of bank regulation (MIFID) by the judgments of the Supreme Court rendered on October 22nd 2015, March 11th 2016 and June 3rd 2016, as well as by other case law rendered on this matter

Abstract

Annulment actions are usually brought in judicial proceedings in relation to banking and investment products based on the infringement of banking regulation, and more specifically, in the directives so called MIFID. Generally, the alleged violation consists in the infringement of the obligation to provide appropriate and comprehensible information to clients or the non performance of the assessments of suitability or of appropriateness. Despite how often this argument is alleged, courts seldom decide on this matter since the main action is usually mistake in the formation of the contract. Scholars and lower case law had different opinions on the possibility to annul this kind of contracts under this ground. However, the majority of them seemed to reject its application. The Spanish Supreme Court case law commented in this article solves this issue, declaring that the article 6.3 of the Spanish Civil Code is not applicable (with its consequent nullity of the contract) due to an infringement of the MIFID regulation.