The Food and Economic Security Authority and the sectoral regulators in the respective fields are responsible for supervising compliance with the information duties of suppliers of goods or service providers -, the instruction of the respective administrative offense processes and the decision on these processes, including the application of fines and additional sanctions if necessary.
ATTENTION: consumer information about available RAL entities does not exempt suppliers of goods and service providers from providing consumers with the Complaints Book, mandatory under the terms of Decree-Law no. 156/2005, of September 15th.
The consumer has the right to be informed, by the supplier of goods or service provider, in relation to the ADR entities to which they are linked, by membership or by legal imposition resulting from necessary arbitration, and indicate their website on the Internet .
This information must be provided in a clear, understandable and appropriate way for the type of good and service that is sold or provided, and be easily accessible (visible) to the consumer:
– on the website of suppliers of goods or service providers, if any;
– and in purchase and sale or service provision contracts between the supplier of goods or service provider and the consumer, when these take written form or constitute adhesion contracts.
If there is no written contract, the information must be provided on another durable medium, namely on a sign posted on the wall or posted at the sales counter or, alternatively, on the invoice delivered to the consumer.
Goods and services intended for consumption must be capable of satisfying the purposes for which they are intended and producing the effects attributed to them, in accordance with legally established standards, or, failing that, in a manner appropriate to the legitimate expectations of the consumer.
The consumer has the right:
Voluntary arbitration translates into the right given to consumers to submit a consumer dispute to the consumer arbitration court for consideration by the arbitrator of the Arbitration Court of a CACC.
If both parties accept the intervention of the Arbitration Court, the arbitrator will decide the dispute applying the rules of the Voluntary Arbitration Law (Law no. 63/2011, of 14/12).
Necessary arbitration translates into the right given to consumers to submit a consumer dispute to the consumer arbitration court of a Consumer Dispute Arbitration Center, binding the respective economic agents to the decision of that court.
Arbitration is required in the following cases:
The supplier is obliged to accept arbitration by the arbitration center if the value of the dispute is up to 5,000.00€.
Arbitration finds its current legal scope in the Voluntary Arbitration Law (LAV).
Arbitration is a formal process, in which the decision is entrusted to an impartial third party – the arbitrator – and has binding force. The arbitration award is equivalent to the decision of a court of first instance.
Arbitration is, as a rule, voluntary, depending on the willingness of both parties to accept resorting to this means of alternative dispute resolution, either at the time the dispute has already occurred, or in advance, through full membership.
Conciliation consists of an attempt by the parties to reach an agreement, before the Arbitration Hearing. Said conciliation attempt, scheduled for the same day as the Arbitration Judgment, must be carried out by the arbitrator, the director of the Center or a jurist responsible for alternative dispute resolution procedures. If an agreement is reached, it is written to written and approved by the arbitrator, producing the effects of an arbitration award.
If conciliation is not possible, the process moves to the ARBITRATION phase
Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution, of a confidential and voluntary nature, through which two or more parties in dispute voluntarily seek to reach an agreement with the assistance of an impartial third party – the conflict mediator – to facilitate the construction of a basis of understanding that allows the resolution of the conflict and that contributes to the maintenance of their relationship.
The voluntary nature of mediation means that:
✔ Parties only engage in mediation if they wish;
✔ The party may withdraw from the mediation at any time.
The mediation procedure is flexible, in order to adapt to the specific conflict, as well as tending to be effective. Mediation may be indirect or through a face-to-face meeting, including using videoconferencing.
We have to distinguish depending on the procedure.
If the complaint process is in the mediation phase, either party can withdraw from the procedure, which determines the end of the procedure and the closure of the complaint process.
If the complaint process is in the arbitration phase (which also includes conciliation), the arbitration court may order the termination of the arbitration process when the consumer withdraws his request, unless the supplier of the good/service provider to is opposed and the arbitral tribunal recognizes that it has a legitimate interest in the dispute being definitively resolved.
Law No. 144/2015 excludes from its scope of application:
✗ Services of General Interest without economic counterpart, such as social services provided by the State or on its behalf;
✗ Health services and public complementary or higher education services;
✗ Disputes between companies against consumers and complaints and requests from consumers to companies and regulatory entities: in these cases the problems must be resolved without the RAL rules being applicable.
CIMARA is competent to resolve consumer disputes:
So, for example: even if you live in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, if you made a purchase in a physical store in Porto, you will have to go to the Porto arbitration center. If an online purchase is in question, the competent arbitration center is the one in the consumer’s area of residence, that is, if you reside in the Autonomous Region of the Azores and made an online purchase from a store in Lisbon, CIMARA will be the your responsible arbitration center.
CIMARA is an institutionalized arbitration center with a regional scope (covering the Azores archipelago) and generic competence in the area of consumer disputes, under the terms of paragraph a) of article 3 of Law nº 144/2015, of September 8 , whose creation was authorized by the Ministry of Justice by Order No. 12783/2022, of September 21, 2022.
Arbitration Centers provide information, mediation and conciliation to people in conflict. These are independent, impartial and specialized entities that seek to help consumers and companies in resolving consumer conflicts.
The Consumer Arbitration Network (RAC) was created by Law No. 144/2015 and integrates consumer dispute arbitration centers authorized to pursue information, mediation and arbitration activities in consumer disputes.
The Directorate-General for Consumer Affairs is the national authority competent to organize registration and
publication of the list of RAL entities.
These are the entities authorized to carry out mediation, conciliation and arbitration of consumer disputes in Portugal that are registered on the list of RAL entities provided for by Law no. 144/2015.
It is enshrined in Law No. 144/2015 of 8 September (RAL law), which transposed Directive 2013/11/EU, of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 21 May 2013, on alternative dispute resolution which establishes the legal framework for mechanisms for extrajudicial resolution of consumer disputes.
Alternative dispute resolution (RAL) allows you to resolve disputes out of court with the assistance of an impartial dispute resolution entity. It is a faster, simpler, friendly and economical way of resolving conflicts, but with equal security guarantees and covers mediation, conciliation and arbitration.
In Portugal, the development of RAL emerged at the end of the 1980s and mainly in the area of consumer law, namely with the creation of the first consumer dispute arbitration center, in Lisbon, in 1989.