PORTUGAL Trends and Developments Contributed by: Luís Portela de Carvalho, Pedro Cortés and Cláudia de Azevedo Neves, Lektou
• prepare for interaction with multiple authorities (ANACOM, ERC, CNPD); • review policies on advertising and online protection of minors; and • test capacity to respond to disputes and sanctions proceedings. Priorities by business model The starting point is to classify the activity correctly, but the practical priority will vary by business model. • For online platforms allowing consumers to con - clude distance contracts with traders, the focus will be on traceability of traders, product information and responses to illegal products or services. • For social networks, the most sensitive issues will be content moderation, statements of reasons for decisions, internal complaint-handling systems, the protection of minors and advertising. • For hosting or cloud services, the priority will be to have effective notice and action mechanisms, with records demonstrating when the provider became aware of content and how it responded. • For very large online platforms and very large online search engines, the concern also extends to systemic risks. What is at stake includes effects on fundamental rights, public security, the protection of minors and serious negative consequences for a person’s physical and mental well-being. Before applying these priorities, providers should also consider whether any micro or small enterprise exemptions are available. The DSA is deliberately pro - portionate: while micro and small enterprises may be exempt from a number of platform-specific obligations (including internal complaint-handling systems, out- of-court dispute settlement, trusted flagger priority, certain advertising and recommender-system trans - parency duties and trader traceability obligations), that does not remove the need to classify the service correctly, comply with any core obligations that remain applicable and monitor whether growth, group struc - ture or future designation changes the analysis. Illegal products and marketplace duties The DSA also creates specific duties where illegal products or services are offered through a platform. Once a platform becomes aware that an illegal prod -
uct or service has been offered through its services, it may have to inform affected consumers, identifying the illegality, the trader and the available means of redress. As a rule, that individual obligation covers consumers who purchased the product or service in the previous six months if the platform has their contact details; otherwise, the platform must make appropriate information publicly available. Recommender systems, advertising and minors Protection of minors deserves particular emphasis. Platforms accessible to minors must adopt appro - priate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security. This may affect the design of recommender systems, age-assurance processes, advertising practices and the way in which terms and conditions are explained to younger users. DSA compliance should not be assessed in isolation from data protection rules. Profiling-based advertis - ing, age assurance, recommender systems, research - er access to data and responses to authority requests should also be reviewed under the GDPR and ePri - vacy framework, particularly where minors’ data or special categories of personal data are involved. For users: more routes to challenge decisions The DSA already grants recipients of the service a set of rights and redress mechanisms. Law No 12-A/2026 makes part of that framework more operational in Por - tugal by identifying the competent authorities, regulat - ing complaints to the Digital Services Co-Ordinator and creating institutional channels for co-operation and communication. In practice, recipients of the service now have multiple routes for challenging platform decisions. For users, the impact goes beyond the ability to file a complaint. The DSA seeks to reduce the “black box” effect of platform decision-making. When an account is suspended, content is removed or a post loses visibility, the user should receive an understandable explanation and know which redress mechanisms are available.
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