Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spanish Government has approved a number of financial support measures to address companies’ liquidity requirements, including the creation of two guarantee schemes (líneas de avales) managed through the Spanish Official Credit Institute (Instituto de Crédito Oficial – ICO) in relation to financings granted to companies and the self-employed:

The Spanish Government has extended the various support measures aimed at helping Spain deal with the economic impact of COVID-19.

This blog post summarises the most relevant new insolvency measures of Royal Decree-Law 5/2021 (‘the RDL’), which was approved on 12 March 2021 and entered into force on 13 March 2021.

Debtor's duty to file for insolvency

The deadline to file for voluntary insolvency has been extended until 31 December 2021 (the previous deadline was 14 March 2021).

Die weltweite Ausbreitung des Coronavirus sorgt für heftige Turbulenzen im Wirtschaftsleben. Gerät eine GmbH in finanzielle Schieflage, steht besonders die Geschäftsführung unter Druck. Sie kämpft um das wirtschaftliche Überleben der Gesellschaft. Gleichzeitig kommen verschiedene Szenarien für die Haftung des Geschäftsführers in Betracht, wenn dieser keine Krisenprävention durchgeführt hat oder in der Krise nicht die erforderliche Sorgfalt anwendet.

Haftung wegen unzureichender Krisenprävention

The coronavirus pandemic is sending shock waves through the business world. If a GmbH (German limited liability company) finds itself in financial distress, the management in particular will be under pressure and must fight for the survival of the business. At the same time, there are various scenarios in which managing directors could be held liable for not implementing crisis prevention measures or exercising the necessary diligence during the crisis.

Liability for inadequate crisis prevention