Litigation 2025

PORTUGAL Trends and Developments Contributed by: Alexandra Nascimento Correia, Guilherme Santos Silva, Gonçalo Malheiro and Laura Cecília Lourenço, Abreu Advogados

Class Actions in Portugal This article will briefly analyse the legal regime and practice associated with so-called class actions. This matter has been regulated for sev- eral years and its practical application over time allows us to draw some conclusions. The aim of class actions is to bring people who have suffered damage under the same condi- tions together in a single process and provide a single legal solution through an action in which a multiplicity of people are represented. By being represented by just one organisation or concentrating on a single individual, class actions not only prevent the courts from being overloaded but also prevent the same factual situation from having different legal outcomes, contributing to legal certainty and procedural effectiveness and efficiency. It also allows cer- tain types of litigation, often consumer-related, to have a legal regime that is more appropriate to the nature of the dispute. In Portugal, there is a general regime regulated primarily by Law 83/95 of 31 August 1995 and supplemented by several other laws that specify or reinforce this right. These include: • Law 19/2014 of 14 April 2014 on environmen- tal policies; • Law 107/2001 of 8 September 2001 on the protection and enhancement of cultural herit- age; • Law 24/96 of 31 July 1996 on consumer protection; • Law 486/99 of 13 November 1999, which enshrines a right of class action for the pro- tection of individual homogeneous or collec- tive interests of non-institutional investors in securities;

• Law 35/2014 of 20 June 2014, regulating col- lective labour disputes in the civil service; and • Decree-Law 114-A/2023, which was intro- duced as part of the transposition of Directive 2020/1828 (the “Directive”). Before this, Article 52 of the Portuguese Con- stitution (the “CRP”) itself provided for a right of class action in circumstances of: • the promotion and prevention, cessation or prosecution of offences against public health; • consumer rights; • quality of life; • the preservation of the environment and cul- tural heritage; and • the defence of assets of the state, autono- mous regions and local authorities. These interests do not seem to be exhaustive, and all the goods and/or values that make sense when systematically evaluated by the constitu- tional provisions should be considered for the purposes of the right to a class action. On 25 November 2020, the European Parliament and the Council approved the Directive, which revoked Directive 2009/22/EC on the grounds of insufficiency. The Directive is motivated by the globalisation and digitalisation of the market and directly related to the increase of consumer risks in cross-border and national transactions. Its legal provisions seek to prevent unlawful practices and prevent consumer losses from diminishing their confidence in the internal and community markets. It also establishes that enti- ties bringing class actions must not only be reg- istered in each member state but also be quali- fied, impartial, free from any influence and fully transparent, energising rules on publicity and access to information about the proceedings.

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