Spain to fine AI abusers up to €35m under strict new laws

The cabinet approved the draft Organic Bill on Tuesday for submission to parliament following a proposal by the Ministry for Digital Transformation.

The legislation significantly toughens penalties for rogue developers and mandates human supervision for any AI tools that could infringe on fundamental human rights.

Óscar López, the digital transformation minister, said the law addresses a growing public demand for digital safety.

"Today is the definitive step," Mr López told a post-cabinet press conference. "Some 77 per cent of the Spanish population wants more protection for their digital rights in the face of AI."

Under the new penalty regime, offences will be classified into three tiers: minor, grave, and very grave.

Minor infractions face fines of up to €500,000 or 0.5 per cent of a company's global turnover. The most severe breaches will trigger maximum penalties of €35m or seven per cent of global turnover, depending on the severity and intent of the offence.

The crackdown specifically targets AI systems deemed to pose an "unacceptable risk" to public safety.

This includes tools used to generate non-consensual sexual "deepfakes" and child abuse material, following recent controversy in Spain over synthetic nude images of minors created using the social media platform X’s virtual assistant, Grok.

Mr López said: "There were AI tools known to everyone, including one from a very prominent social media network, being used in Spain by children to impersonate people and use photographs of female classmates to generate sexually explicit images.

"This was happening, and this is now banned."

The legislation also outlaws:

• AI chatbots that use subliminal manipulation, such as targeting gamblers to entice them to place bets.

• Tech that exploits vulnerable people, including children’s toys that encourage dangerous physical challenges.

• Biometric software that classifies people by race, religion, or sexual orientation.

• Social scoring systems used to deny individuals access to bank loans or public grants.

The Spanish measures go a step further than the broader European Union agreement reached on May 7, which established a baseline ban on synthetic intimate content and sexual deepfakes across the bloc.