Is Pepper Spray Legal in Spain? Requirements, Fines and Offence

It is one of the most frequently asked questions about weapons: can I carry pepper spray to defend myself? The short answer is yes, but only if it is an officially approved model and you are of legal age. The full answer requires distinguishing four levels —the product, possession, carrying and use—, because each one has different legal consequences: from full legality to a sanction under the Public Safety Act or, in the most serious cases, an offence of possession of prohibited weapons under article 563 of the Criminal Code (CP). We explain it with the Firearms Regulation (Reglamento de Armas) in hand.

What the Firearms Regulation says

The reference framework is the Firearms Regulation (Reglamento de Armas), approved by Royal Decree 137/1993. Its starting point is restrictive: aerosols and devices that project incapacitating, toxic or corrosive substances are, as a general rule, among the prohibited weapons, whose possession and use by private individuals are banned, just as with electric defence devices or knuckledusters.

That said, the Regulation itself provides for an exception: personal self-defence sprays expressly approved by the Administration, following a report by the Standing Inter-Ministerial Commission on Arms and Explosives, are deemed permitted. These authorised aerosols may be sold in gun shops to persons who can prove they are of legal age. The practical consequence is clear: there is no generic legality of "pepper spray" as a category. What is legal or illegal is each specific product, depending on whether or not it holds that official approval.

When it is legal: the requirements for an approved spray

For carrying a self-defence spray to be legal, in short, these conditions must be met:

• Approved product: the specific model must hold official approval, which the manufacturer reflects on the labelling. Permitted aerosols are based on oleoresin capsicum (OC) —the extract of the pepper— in low-aggressiveness formats with limited capacity; the exact specifications depend on each authorisation, so it is advisable to verify them before buying.
• Purchase from an authorised establishment: the regular way to acquire one is a licensed gun shop, not a bazaar, a foreign website or a street market.
• Legal age: only persons over 18 may acquire and carry them.
• Keep the labelling and the invoice: this is not a legal requirement of validity, but it is the easiest way to show, during a police identification, that the aerosol is a permitted model.

An important caution: the catalogues of authorised products change over time. If you have doubts about a specific model, ask at the gun shop or check with the Guardia Civil's Weapons Intervention service (Intervención de Armas) before acquiring it, rather than relying on the seller's commercial description.

Non-approved spray: fine or offence?

This is where the real legal risk lies. Anyone carrying a non-authorised aerosol may be liable through two different routes, depending on the circumstances:

1. Administrative route. Organic Law 4/2015 on the protection of public safety classifies the possession and carrying of prohibited weapons as a serious infringement, with a fine and confiscation of the device. This is the usual response when a small aerosol is seized from a person with no other relevant circumstances: the spray is confiscated and a sanctioning file is opened.

2. Criminal route. Article 563 CP provides that "the possession of prohibited weapons, and of those resulting from a substantial modification of the manufacturing characteristics of regulated weapons, shall be punished with one to three years' imprisonment". Settled case law, however, requires a restrictive interpretation of this offence: not every formally prohibited possession is criminal, but only that which reveals a significant danger to public safety.

In practice, the factors that tip the balance towards the offence are the chemical agent (CS-type tear gas aerosols or those with toxic or corrosive substances move away from the common self-defence spray), the capacity and power of the device, and the context of carrying it: an aerosol forgotten in a bag is not the same as one carried alongside other weapons, during an altercation or to intimidate. The line between sanction and offence is not automatic and is examined case by case; we analyse it in more detail in our guide on when possession of weapons is an offence and when an administrative infringement.

Buying it online or bringing it from abroad does not make it legal

This is the origin of a good part of the files we see at the firm. Many aerosols are sold openly on foreign websites and marketplaces as "self-protection" products, and they are legal in their country of origin. That is irrelevant in Spain: the legality of the device is governed by Spanish law, shipments are frequently intercepted at customs, and the non-approved product remains a prohibited weapon even if it came with an invoice.

The fact that the aerosol was sold openly may, however, help build a defence based on a mistake of prohibition: the reasonable belief that the product was legal may exclude or mitigate criminal liability. But it is a defence that must be proven, not an automatic safe-conduct. We deal in depth with this type of device on our page on tasers, electric defence devices and prohibited sprays.

Use: only in proportionate self-defence

Having an approved spray does not authorise you to use it freely. Its use against a person is only covered by the self-defence ground of article 20.4 CP, which requires three conditions: an unlawful aggression; a rationally necessary means to prevent or repel it; and no sufficient provocation by the person defending themselves.

Applied to the spray: there must be a current or imminent attack (not an argument, not retaliation once the aggression has already ceased), the use of the aerosol must be a rationally necessary response —and here the approved spray, conceived precisely as a non-lethal defensive means, usually works in favour of the person defending— and the person using it must not have provoked the situation. We explain the three requirements, with their nuances, in our guide on self-defence.

Outside those limits, spraying someone may constitute an offence of bodily harm: article 147.1 CP punishes bodily harm requiring medical or surgical treatment with three months to three years' imprisonment or a fine of six to twelve months, and article 148.1 CP allows the penalty to be raised to two to five years' imprisonment when means that are specifically dangerous to life or health are used in the aggression. And a further warning: if the aerosol used was a prohibited model, any justification of its use does not erase the possession, which is assessed as a separate infringement.

Minors, everyday carrying and events

Minors cannot acquire or carry self-defence sprays, not even approved ones: legal age is a condition of the sale authorisation itself. It is a common mistake for parents to buy the aerosol "for" a teenage child to carry: that carrying is unlawful.

For adults, carrying the approved model is in principle legal, but not unconditional: at public shows, sporting events and leisure venues with access control, it is common for entry with aerosols not to be allowed and for the device to be removed during the search, and carrying it to gatherings or demonstrations may have sanctioning consequences depending on the circumstances. The prudent approach is to carry it only when there is a reasonable self-protection rationale, and to accept that there are contexts in which it cannot be brought in.

What to do if you are charged with possessing a prohibited spray

If an aerosol has been seized from you and you face a sanctioning file or a criminal charge, our advice is as follows:

1. Do not make a statement without a lawyer: the difference between a fine and an offence often depends on nuances (what you knew about the product, what you were carrying it for) that should be set out with legal assistance from the very first moment.
2. Gather proof of origin: invoice, screenshot of the purchase website, packaging and labelling. They serve both to prove approval and to ground a mistake of prohibition if the product turned out not to be authorised.
3. Request analysis of the device: the composition of the agent, the capacity and the working condition are decisive in disputing the real dangerousness, which is a prerequisite of the offence under article 563 CP.
4. Argue for referral to the administrative route: for small aerosols, the proportionate response is the sanctioning one, not the criminal one.

At the firm we take on the defence in proceedings for unlawful possession of weapons in all their forms, from the administrative file to the trial.