When people talk about the Transparency Law, most private organisations perceive it as a rule that applies exclusively to governments and local councils. A costly mistake. The Law 19/2013, of 9 December, on transparency, access to public information and good governance, has a much broader scope: it extends to political parties, trade unions, employers' organisations and, in certain circumstances, to any private entity that receives significant public funding. Knowing exactly who is obliged, what information must be published and what happens if the law is not followed is the only way to avoid penalties, complaints and — equally serious — the reputational damage associated with an unfavourable ruling from the Council for Transparency and Good Governance.
The legal framework: what is Law 19/2013
Law 19/2013 pursues three objectives that are worth distinguishing clearly: (1) establishing active disclosure obligations, meaning publishing information without waiting for anyone to request it; (2) regulating the right of access to public information, which allows any citizen to request information from obliged entities; and (3) setting the good governance principles that bind senior officials and public managers.
The law is structured in three titles. Title I, on the transparency of public activity, entered into force on 10 December 2014 for the central State Administration and the Autonomous Communities, and was extended to Local Administration on 10 December 2015. Title II, devoted to good governance, entered into force the day after its publication in the Official State Gazette (10 December 2013).
Since then, regional regulations have supplemented and in many cases tightened the national regime. Castilla y León has Law 3/2015, of 4 March, on Transparency and Citizen Participation, which expands the mandatory disclosure content and lowers the grant thresholds to bring more entities within scope. The Canary Islands has Law 12/2014, of 26 December, on transparency and access to public information. If your organisation operates in either of these regions, compliance must cover both regulatory layers.
Who is obliged? The three main groups
The law distinguishes three categories of obliged subjects with different levels of obligation:
1. Administrations and public-sector entities
These are the subjects with the most comprehensive regime. They include the central State Administration, autonomous communities, local entities (municipalities, provincial councils, island councils), autonomous bodies, state agencies, public business entities, public-law entities, publicly owned companies with public-sector participation exceeding 50%, public-sector foundations, associations set up by public administrations, the managing bodies and common services of Social Security, and Social Security mutual collaborating entities. These entities have obligations both for active disclosure and for responding to access requests.
2. Other obliged subjects under Article 3 (active disclosure only, no access right)
Article 3 of the Law extends active disclosure obligations to entities that, while not being administrations, exercise publicly relevant functions or receive significant public funding. Specifically:
- Political parties, trade unions and employers' organisations with representation in public institutions or that receive public grants.
- Foundations linked to political parties — an extension announced and promoted by the Government through a regulatory initiative in autumn 2025, with the aim of extending supervision to foundations such as Disenso (Vox).
- Any private entity that during a one-year period receives public aid or grants exceeding 100,000 euros, or when at least 40% of its annual income comes from public aid and this amounts to at least 5,000 euros.
This last point is the one that most surprises private companies that apply for grants, European project funding or intensive public procurement. If in a given financial year your entity exceeds any of these thresholds, it becomes subject to publishing certain information actively, even if it is not a public entity.
3. Contract awardees and concession holders
Natural and legal persons that provide public services or exercise administrative powers under a contract or concession must comply with the transparency obligations in the part of their activity linked to that service. Private management of a public service is not exempt.
What information must be published? Active disclosure by category
Articles 6, 7 and 8 of Law 19/2013 set out, as a minimum, the information that must be permanently available, updated, accessible and comprehensible. It is grouped into three main categories:
| Category | Article | Main content |
|---|---|---|
| Institutional, organisational and planning information | Art. 6 | Functions of the entity, applicable regulations, organisational structure, plans and programmes with objectives and monitoring indicators, evaluation reports. |
| Legally relevant information | Art. 7 | Guidelines, instructions and circulars with external legal effects; replies to consultations with interpretative value; draft regulations under processing; memoranda and reports accompanying regulatory drafting; documents submitted to public consultation. |
| Economic, budgetary and statistical information | Art. 8 | Contracts (subject matter, tender/award amount, procedure, awardee); signed agreements; grants and aid awarded (beneficiary, amount, purpose, call); budget and budget execution; annual accounts; senior official remuneration; senior officials' asset declarations; compatibility resolutions; management assignments; real estate in use or ownership. |
This information must be published on dedicated transparency portals or on the State Administration's Transparency Portal (transparencia.gob.es), and kept permanently updated. The mere existence of a portal is not enough: information must be reusable (open formats wherever possible) and findable without any technical expertise.
The right of access to public information
In addition to active disclosure, any citizen can request information that has not already been published. Entities subject to Title I of the Law (not those under Article 3, which only have active disclosure obligations) must respond within a maximum of one month, extendable to two months in cases of complexity. Administrative silence is negative: if the entity does not respond, the request is deemed refused and the applicant may appeal to the Council for Transparency and Good Governance (or the equivalent regional body).
The right of access may be restricted on specific grounds: national security, defence, foreign relations, public safety, criminal investigation, personal data, intellectual property, professional secrecy, economic and commercial interest, or economic policy. Any refusal must be expressly reasoned and cite the applicable restriction.
Non-compliance: real consequences in 2024–2025
The perception that the Transparency Law lacks teeth has changed in recent years. The data from the Council for Transparency and Good Governance (CTBG) are telling:
- By mid-2025, public administrations had accumulated a significant number of upheld rulings left unexecuted, with non-compliance rates exceeding 20% of all cases in some areas, according to the CTBG activity report published in the Official State Gazette in September 2025.
- During 2024, the CTBG processed dozens of formal complaints for non-compliance with active disclosure obligations.
- At regional level, several autonomous communities, including Castilla y León, recorded relevant non-compliance rates for their transparency commissioners' upheld rulings.
For private entities, the consequences are different but equally relevant. Failure to meet active disclosure obligations may result in:
- Recovery of grants received, if the transparency obligation was a condition of the award.
- Exclusion from future calls for public aid.
- Termination of contracts with the Administration when the transparency obligation was included as an essential condition of performance.
- Coercive fines at regional level: Law 3/2015 of Castilla y León (as amended by Law 2/2017) provides for repeated coercive fines for successive periods until compliance is achieved, with a maximum of 3,000 euros per period.
- Reputational damage from publication of the unfavourable ruling in the Official State Gazette or the corresponding regional official gazette.
For organisations competing in public tenders or seeking European funding, a negative ruling from the CTBG can have immediate practical effects on selection procedures.
How to implement compliance efficiently
Complying with the Transparency Law is not an exercise in mass-dumping documents on a website. It requires a systematic process covering four elements:
- Obligation diagnosis. Identify whether the entity falls under Article 2 (public sector), Article 3 (parties, trade unions, private entities receiving grants) or the awardee regime. The grant threshold must be calculated over the full financial year.
- Inventory of publishable information. Map what information already exists in the organisation and in what format, what needs to be adapted and what must be newly generated (especially the planning indicators under Article 6).
- Design of the publication channel. The transparency portal can be a section of the corporate website, provided it meets accessibility and reuse requirements. Small local entities may opt to join the State Administration's Transparency Portal under an agreement.
- Update and response procedure. Assign responsibilities, set internal deadlines for content updates and establish a workflow for managing access requests with registration and tracking.
At Summum Consultoría we accompany public and private entities throughout the entire process: from obligation diagnosis to portal implementation and the design of the request-response procedure. Since 2007 we have been working with local administrations, foundations and public-fund beneficiaries in Castilla y León and the Canary Islands.
Differences between national law and regional laws
Law 19/2013 has the status of basic legislation, meaning autonomous communities may go further but cannot reduce the level of protection. In practice, the most relevant differences affecting private entities are:
- Grant thresholds: Castilla y León lowered the 40% threshold for grants representing a significant share of income, bringing more entities within scope.
- Sanctions regime: The national law does not establish direct penalties for Article 3 entities. The most comprehensive regional laws (such as that of Castilla y León) do include coercive fines.
- Supervisory body: At national level, the CTBG is the appeals authority. Castilla y León has the Transparency Commissioner; the Canary Islands has the Canarian Transparency Commissioner. Each has its own interpretative criteria that are worth knowing.
- Response deadlines: Some autonomous communities have reduced the maximum deadline for responding to access requests to 15 working days, compared with the one month under national law.
If your organisation operates in several autonomous communities, compliance must cover the most demanding layer applicable in each territory. The most efficient approach is to start from the strictest regional standard and apply it uniformly.
Frequently asked questions
Is a private company that receives no grants obliged by the Transparency Law?
In principle, no. The obligation for private entities arises only when the grant or public aid threshold is exceeded (more than 100,000 euros in one year, or more than 40% of annual income with a minimum of 5,000 euros). If your company does not receive public funding in those amounts, Law 19/2013 does not impose active disclosure obligations or obligations to respond to access requests. However, if you provide public services or manage an administrative concession, you will be subject to the law in the part relating to that activity.
How long is there to respond to an access-to-information request?
The general deadline is one month from receipt of the request, extendable to two months when the requested information is particularly voluminous or complex, notifying the extension before the initial deadline expires. If the entity does not respond in time, the silence has a rejecting effect: the applicant may appeal to the Council for Transparency and Good Governance or the equivalent regional body within one month of the implied rejection.
Does the transparency portal have to be a dedicated website or can it be a section of the corporate website?
The law does not require a separate URL. Compliance is valid if the information is published in a clear, structured and permanent way on the entity's website, in a section identifiable as «Transparency» or equivalent. What is mandatory is that the information be directly accessible, without any prior registration or identification, and kept up to date. Small local entities may use the State Administration's Transparency Portal under a prior agreement.
What happens if the Council for Transparency rules against my organisation?
CTBG rulings are binding on public-sector entities and may be challenged before the administrative courts. For private entities subject to Article 3, failure to fulfil active disclosure obligations may result in loss of grants received and exclusion from future calls. Moreover, rulings are published in the Official State Gazette, generating direct reputational impact. At regional level, coercive fines are cumulative and continue until the breach is remedied, meaning costs can escalate rapidly.
If your organisation needs clarity on whether it is obliged, what it must publish and how to implement compliance efficiently, the Summum Consultoría team can accompany you from the initial diagnosis to the launch of the portal. With offices in Valladolid, Burgos, Palencia, Aranda de Duero and Las Palmas, and more than seventeen years of experience in regulatory consultancy for SMEs and the public sector, we know what works and what does not in the practical implementation of transparency obligations.