Castilian, co-official languages and European Portuguese
Spain's Spanish uses vosotros for 'you' in the plural, its own vocabulary, such as ordenador and móvil where Latin America says computadora and celular, and a pronunciation that separates the sounds of 'z' and 's'. A neutral Latin American voice-over sounds foreign in Madrid, and the reverse is true in Mexico City. Catalan, Galician and Basque are co-official in their regions, and campaigns there often run in both languages. European Portuguese differs from Brazilian in vocabulary, pronouns, some spelling and, above all, pronunciation. Portugal's Advertising Code (Decree-Law 330/90) allows foreign languages only where foreigners are the main audience, so Portuguese is in effect required for Portuguese consumers.
AESIA and Spain's AI bill
Spain created the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence, AESIA, based in A Coruña, in 2023, ahead of most EU countries. In March 2025 the government approved a draft law on the good use and governance of AI that would make failing to label deepfakes a serious infringement with substantial fines. The Council of Ministers approved it as a bill in May 2026, and it is now at the amendment stage in Congress. It has not passed, and its final wording may change. Meanwhile the EU AI Act applies directly: realistic synthetic content has needed disclosure since 2 August 2026, and AESIA is among the authorities that supervise AI in Spain.
Image, voice and consent
Spain's Organic Law 1/1982 on the rights to honour, privacy and one's own image already treats using a person's name, voice or image for advertising without consent as an unlawful intrusion, and it names the voice explicitly. A replacement bill, approved by the government in July 2026 and now before Congress, would treat advertising use of a person's voice or image without consent as an intrusion even when it is simulated, with a narrow exception for realistic imitations of public figures in clearly creative or satirical work, disclosed where they could pass as real. Portugal's Advertising Code bars using a person's image or words in advertising without their consent. Both countries apply GDPR, with the Spanish data protection authority, the AEPD, among Europe's more active enforcers. Written consent, specific to the uses, is the baseline.
Autocontrol, influencers and Portugal's ARP
Autocontrol runs advertising self-regulation in Spain, with a jury that rules on complaints and a copy advice service that reviews ads before launch, and an industry code on influencer advertising has applied since January 2021. Royal Decree 444/2024 goes further for the biggest creators: anyone earning at least EUR 300,000 a year, with a million followers on one platform or two million across several, and at least 24 videos a year, falls under the audiovisual law's advertising rules and must register. In Portugal, self-regulation runs through Auto Regulação Publicitária. The studio localises copy into 30 languages with terminology enforced, but keep European and Latin American Spanish, and European and Brazilian Portuguese, as separate glossaries with separate reviewers.
Updated 25 September 2026 · General information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the current text with your legal team before relying on it.