Translate Terms and Conditions of Sale into Spanish

How your clauses read in Spanish

Terms of sale rest on a handful of concepts, each with an established Spanish equivalent. A literal rendering gets them wrong quickly. A few to look for in the result:

• Right of withdrawal / cooling-off period: derecho de desistimiento, not periodo de enfriamiento.
• Statutory warranty of conformity: garantía legal de conformidad; a manufacturer’s or commercial warranty is garantía comercial.
• VAT included: IVA incluido.
• Shipping costs: gastos de envío.
• Governing law and jurisdiction: ley aplicable y jurisdicción competente, or sumisión a juzgados y tribunales in Spanish drafting.
• Legal notice / imprint: aviso legal.

The heading itself varies: Condiciones generales de venta is common, Condiciones generales de contratación echoes the wording of Spanish legislation, and many online shops simply use Términos y condiciones. Match whatever your other Spanish pages use.

Spain or Latin America: deadlines, numbers, register

Deadlines are the first trap. “Business days” becomes días hábiles; “calendar days” becomes días naturales in Spain or días corridos in Argentina and Chile. A “14-day” withdrawal period should say which: 14 días naturales. Spanish plurals follow the one, many and other categories, but in terms of sale only 1 día versus 14 días matters in practice.

Number formats depend on the country: Spain writes 1.250,90 €, whereas Mexico uses a decimal point, $1,250.90. Dates run day/month/year, and numbered clauses often keep the abbreviated ordinal: artículo 1.º.

On register, Spanish terms address the customer formally (usted) or in the third person (el Comprador, el Cliente). The informal tú, common in marketing copy, jars in a contractual text. Everyday vocabulary also differs, ordenador in Spain and computadora in Latin America, which affects any product descriptions quoted in the terms.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Upload your terms as Word, PDF, HTML, RTF, Markdown, plain text or another accepted format (PowerPoint, Excel, CSV). The quote appears immediately, based on the exact word count; for terms of around 3,000 words, about eight pages, the translation is delivered within minutes. Spanish is charged at the base rate, coefficient ×1. The file comes back in its original format with the layout intact: clause headings, numbered sub-clauses and bold key terms stay where they were. It remains available in your client area.

What Manuce does not do:

• it does not check your clauses against Spanish, Mexican or Colombian law: terms drafted under English or French law remain so once translated, with the same deadlines and statutory references;
• it does not produce certified (sworn) translations: if a court or authority requires one signed by an accredited translator, you need a different route;
• it cannot read a scanned PDF, meaning an image with no selectable text.

For terms you will publish and rely on with customers, the Professional level, handled by the legal specialist, is the appropriate choice.

Preparing the file

• Start from the source document rather than a PDF saved from your website, and make sure the text is selectable.
• Check cross-references: “see clause 7.2” must point to the right clause; numbering is preserved, so an error in the original carries over.
• Decide on the target market before reviewing: one text cannot serve Spain and Mexico at once for currency, VAT and jurisdiction.
• Note what must not change: company name, registration number, registered address, brand names.

Manuce does not take glossaries: for an in-house term you want kept as it is, such as a service name like Express Delivery, check it in the free sample, then in the full translation.

Checks to run on the Spanish version

1. Amounts: €29.90 incl. VAT should read 29,90 € IVA incluido, with no currency conversion, which translation does not do.
2. Deadlines: every period specifies naturales or hábiles.
3. Statutory references: a reference to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or another national law stays a reference to that law; if it is meant to bind a Spanish customer, have a lawyer review the clause.
4. Register: usted or third person throughout, with no slip into tú.
5. Inverted question marks in any embedded FAQ: ¿Cómo ejerzo mi derecho de desistimiento?

In practice

1. Export your terms in an accepted format with selectable text.
2. Upload the file and choose Spanish: the quote reflects the exact word count.
3. Read the free sample and check desistimiento, IVA and deadlines.
4. Pay and download the translated file in its original format.
5. Have a lawyer validate clauses that refer to governing law.