Diamond Resorts Validates Contractual Clauses Establishing Submission To English Law

Cuatrecasas has advised Diamond Resorts on a recent judgment of the plenary of the First Division of the Supreme Court, confirming the arguments defended by the firm's Cassation and Other Special Appeals Group, first, before the Court of Justice of the European Union, and second, before the Spanish Supreme Court, for the interpretation of the Rome I Regulation.

The judgment confirms the validity of the choice-of-law clauses that subject consumer contracts to the law of the country where consumers have their habitual residence, under the Rome I Regulation. It also shifts the burden of proving foreign law to the claimant, offering an innovative interpretation of article 281 of the Spanish Code of Civil Procedure.

This judgment fully supports the company’s contractual strategy to submit disputes over its time-sharing contracts to English law.

Until now, the arguments upheld by the provincial courts, mainly in Málaga and Tenerife, were the opposite and consequently the contracts—which under English law are valid—were systematically declared null.