M1 Legal shows indications of breaking it's records for compensation awards in 2022
Timeshare companies in Europe have long been ignoring laws that were put in place to provide protection for consumers.
Spanish laws were introduced back in 1999, and they were designed to prevent practices like high-pressure sales tactics from being used.
The timeshare companies knew that their customers were unlikely to be able to navigate the Spanish legal system after all, so they felt confident to just ignore the laws.
But the tables turned when claims companies like European Consumer Claims (ECC) began working together with specialist timeshare lawyers in Spain like M1 Legal.
ECC reviews each unique case and refers the strongest ones onto M1 Legal. These lawyers then pursue the claims case through the courts to obtain justice for the timeshare victims.
Fernando Sansegundo, the head of M1 Legal, said: "Every year we grow and achieve more victories than the year before. By August we had already reached 250 court victories on behalf of our clients, which is several percentage points up from the record set last year."
During the first seven months of this year, M1 Legal helped timeshare victims to win £4.1 million in compensation. This is looking likely to go up to £6.2 million by the year's end, making it a record year for the legal firm.
Many timeshare companies have had to pay out large amounts in compensation for victims. The most penalised resort so far in 2022 has been Club La Costa, which has had £2.1 million in compensation awarded against it.
Other resorts that M1 Legal has won compensation for their clients include:
In addition, several smaller resorts had combined awards of £578,000.
The average timeshare compensation award is around £20,000, but some awards are much greater.
In 2022 so far, these are the largest single awards achieved by M1 Legal:
Telling our clients the news is "one of the greatest pleasures in my job", Sansegundo says. And this is unsurprising, seeing as the bigger awards can be life changing.
Many clients only want to get out of their memberships to start with, so when they find out they have been awarded a large amount in compensation also, they can hardly believe it.
While every case is unique, the fact is that many timeshare owners can escape their contracts with expert help and even claim compensation.
If you want to find out whether you might have a compensation claim or just simply want to escape from your timeshare, then contact our expert advisers at the Timeshare Advice Centre. They can provide an assessment of your situation and independent advice on your first steps to timeshare freedom.