PORTUGAL Trends and Developments Contributed by: Luís Portela de Carvalho, Pedro Cortés and Cláudia de Azevedo Neves, Lektou
• Advertising and interface design – advertising transparency, restrictions on profiling based on special categories of personal data, and limits on deceptive interface design. • Protection of minors – appropriate and proportion - ate privacy, safety and security measures, as well as restrictions on profiling-based advertising where the platform knows with reasonable certainty that the user is a minor. • Marketplaces – traceability of traders and inter - faces that allow traders to provide pre-contractual, compliance and product safety information. • Very large online platforms and very large online search engines – enhanced obligations for VLOPs and VLOSEs, including systemic risk assessment and mitigation. VLOPs, VLOSEs and scale For designation purposes, the DSA uses a threshold of at least 45 million average monthly active recipients of the service in the EU. The Commission maintains a current list of designated VLOPs and VLOSEs, which changes over time as platforms are designated or have their designations terminated. Examples include major social media platforms, e-commerce market - places and search engines. Readers should consult the Commission’s current list for the latest designa - tions and user figures. Liability exemptions and voluntary measures The DSA also preserves conditional liability exemp - tions for intermediary service providers. In simple terms, a provider is not automatically liable for hosted content if it has no actual knowledge of illegality, or if it acts promptly once it obtains that knowledge. Article 7 of the DSA further protects good-faith, diligent vol - untary measures to detect, identify, remove or disable access to illegal content. Why national implementation in Portugal matters The key point is that the DSA establishes harmonised substantive obligations, but its effective enforcement in each member state depends on national legisla - tion designating authorities, creating procedures and setting sanctions. This is precisely what Law No 12-A/2026 does in Portugal.
This is why the DSA should not be seen only as a set of rules on online content. It is a framework for making the digital space more explainable, auditable and accountable, requiring platforms to justify deci - sions that were previously largely invisible to users and regulators. Law No 12-A/2026: Establishing the National Enforcement Framework Law No 12-A/2026 ensures the implementation of the DSA in the Portuguese legal order. In addition, it amends Decree-Law No 7/2004 (on electronic com - merce) and the Law on the Organisation of the Judi - cial System, and repeals Decree-Law No 20-B/2024, which had provisionally designated the competent authorities. The timing is important. Portugal was among the member states targeted by the European Commission for failure to implement the DSA effectively, which led to the opening of infringement proceedings. Law No 12-A/2026 is therefore more than a designation stat - ute: it creates an institutional model with supervisory, investigative and sanctioning powers. What the Portuguese law adds to the DSA The Portuguese law does not duplicate the substan - tive obligations – those arise directly from the DSA as a European regulation. What it does is make the DSA enforceable at national level, through: • designation of the Portuguese National Commu - nications Authority (ANACOM) as Digital Services Co-Ordinator; • allocation of sectoral powers (the Regulatory Authority for the Media, ERC, and the National Data Protection Commission, CNPD); • national procedures for complying with determina - tions; • communication platform managed by ANACOM; • sanctions regime; • routes of judicial appeal; and • institutional co-operation mechanisms. Until Law No 12-A/2026 was adopted, DSA enforce - ment was most visible in relation to very large online
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