CARREFOUR will open 100 new stores in Spain this year which it says will create 700 jobs.

The announcement comes weeks after its fellow French rival Alcampo said it was cutting 580 jobs and closing 26 outlets in the country.

Carrefour’s expansion will focus primarily on its smaller format Carrefour Express stores rather than hypermarkets, with 46 openings so far this year.

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The chain has opened 691 stores in Spain since 2019, bringing its total to over 1,600 outlets and representing an investment of €150 million.

The added push is Carrefour’s response to the growing pressure from regional supermarket chains and the dominance of Mercadona, which has 1,614 outlets.

Despite all the expansion, Carrefour’s market share has remained stagnant at 9.8%, well behind Mercadona’s 26.6%.

Lidl and Eroski trail behind with market shares of 6.5% and 4.3%, respectively, according to the latest Kantar figures.

Consumer preferences are shifting towards regional chains with local roots and offering a wide selection of local products, reflected in them grabbing an 18% market share.

Data from the employers association Assedas reveals that the number of regional stores has increased from 3,750 in 2021 to 4,130 today, which is one reason that Carrefour is pushing its Express outlets.

Carrefour’s Spanish sales saw a 1.4% like-for-like increase in the first three months of 2025, fuelled by a 2.5% rise in comparable food sales- an improvement over the 1.8% increase seen in the final quarter of 2024.

NETFLIX will invest €1 billion in Spanish productions over the next four years.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos during a visit to its 22,000 m2 Tres Cantos production hub north of Madrid.

Sarandos was in Spain to celebrate the company’s 10th year of making tv shows and films in the country.

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The Netflix executive was joined at Tres Cantos by Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez.

Sanchez said: “Spain welcomes and appreciates your presence and your firm commitment to the development of a sector as vibrant and as important for the Spanish economy as the audiovisual industry.”

“When Netflix arrived in our country a decade ago, I think it not only changed the way users watched movies and series. But I think it changed something much more profound, such as the way in which the world viewed our country,” Sanchez added.

He also referred to ‘thousands of professionals writing stories in Spanish that have conquered screens across the world.”

Ted Sarandos said: We have filmed in more than 200 cities and towns in Spain, and there are still wonderful places to discover.”

He said that Netflix had contributed to creating more than 20,000 jobs in the Spanish audiovisual industry.

“The last ten years have been extraordinary and we look forward to the next ten years… and more,” he said.

Netflix vice-president for content in Spain and Portugal, Diego Avalos, referred to a ‘benchmark in inspiration’ for tv series like ‘Money Heist’, ‘Cable Girls’, ‘Elite’ or ‘Berlin’.

He also referred to films like ‘Society of the Snow’, ‘Through My Window’ and ‘The Hole.

“The ‘Made in Spain’ content is among the most popular series along with Korean and Japanese ones,” Avalos proclaimed.

Usually, when you take out the mortgage, you do expect to pay back the loan, not your bank’s notary fees. That’s precisely what one Spanish court has ruled against this month, ordering BBVA to refund €684 to a client after declaring one of its mortgage clauses abusive. The clause in question. It forced borrowers to pay for virtually every associated cost out of their mortgage, ranging from registration to administrative expenses. 

While BBVA walked away without paying a cent, this ruling might sound small, but it lands in the middle of a long line of legal troubles for BBVA: Who should pay for the fine print, and if you’re a homeowner in Spain, this decision might mean you are owed money as well. 

What BBVA did 

When a couple took out their mortgage with BBVA, they didn’t just agree to the monthly repayments. The contract also stated that they had to pay for everything else, including the notary, registration fees, paperwork, and administration fees. 

In total, it incurred €684 in extra costs, all of which were passed on to the customer, and BBVA did not cover a single cent. The Spanish court ruled that the clause was abusive. Why? Because it broke the law. The judge said it unfairly tipped the responsibility in favour of the bank by violating fundamental consumer protection laws.

A bank cannot transfer all the cost of doing business with a client, especially not through a contract where most people don’t even realise they can challenge it.

Now, BBVA must repay the €684, and the ruling could serve as a precedent for other homeowners in a similar situation. If you were charged all the fees for your mortgage, you might be able to claim them back.

BBVA’s track record

This is not the first time BBVA’s contracts have landed in court or made headlines. Back in the 2010s, it came under fire for “clausulas suelo” (floor Clauses), which set the minimum interest rate on valuable mortgages. As a result, when interest rates dropped, customers continued to pay high rates. Many of them were unaware that this was happening.

In 2013, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled on those clauses were unfair, then after that the European Court of justice stepped in and said to the banks including BBVA that they had to refund customers all the money that the customer’s overpaid and some of the homeowners got their money back but that wasn’t all.

BBVA has also been investigated in recent years for high-profile corporate spying scandals, which involved payments to a former police commissioner who dug up information on its Rivals and journalists. 

So, the Fallout shook Spain’s financial world and triggered internal reform. In short, this latest ruling isn’t an isolated mistake; it’s a pattern, and the Spanish courts are peeling back those layers. 

Could this affect your mortgage?

If you have taken out a mortgage in Spain within the last 10 to 15 years, you may be sitting on a refund without even realising it. Spanish courts have consistently ruled that charging customers for all the notary registration and administrative costs is illegal, especially if it’s buried within the fine print and a contract that you never negotiated.

• Did you pay all the fees when you took out the mortgage?
• Was the contract from BBVA or another major bank?
• Did your bank assign a notary to you, or has it stored it without your discussion?

 If so, then the legal precedent is in your favour. You can be entitled to claim back hundreds or even thousands of Euros, depending on your case. 

Consumer groups across Spain, including FACUA and OCU, have been encouraging more people to come forward, and while this process involves a lot of paperwork, it’s far from hopeless. Many clients have already won, so if you’ve never looked back at your mortgage, now might be a good time to do so.

The power of the refund

In the case of the client, winning back €684 may not seem like a significant amount. On the contrary, where nearly every household has some form of debt and banks wield this enormous contractual power, rulings including this one chip away at the bigger imbalance. 

This is a reminder that the fine print does matter and that even the most standard contract can be questioned and challenged when it crosses the line. For BBVA, this is another page in a long legal history, but for the rest of us, it’s proof that just because something is familiar does not mean it’s fair.