Law 59/2021 of 14 July was amended by Law No 14/2023of 6 April on the making available and publicising the consumer's contact telephone number. With the change made now, the locais onde as linhas de apoio telefónico devem ser publicitadasin a way that mandatory and with indication of the price of the call cost, foram revistos e tal como referido na nova redação da lei estes são apenas on site and ons contratos escritos celebrados, quando aplicável.
The first measure came into force on 1 June 2022, the decree-law no. 59/2021of 14 July and regulates the "Availability and disclosure of telephone lines for consumer contact". It was established that the suppliers of goods and services and entities providing from essential public services (such as electricity, water, telecommunications or electricity), must provide a customer support line - free or low cost..
If you only have value-added lines (numbers starting with 7, 808 or 30) you should also add one of the options mentioned above.
Quais são as regras aplicadas à disponibilização e divulgação de linhas telefónicas para contacto do consumidor?
The companies providers of essential public services, on the other hand, are required to provide a free customer support line or start with the code 2 or 9..
Os restantes prestadores de bens e serviços não são obrigados a ter uma linha para contacto telefónico com o consumidor. Mas, se o fizerem, têm necessariamente de ter, igualmente, uma opção gratuita ou de baixo custo em sites e contratos.
In addition, all entities that provide customer support lines are required to disclose only on site and in the contracts concluded, the customer support number, as well as the price of the respective calls.
For calls that vary according to tariff and operator you can, alternatively, at the cost of the call replace the indication with:
- Call for national fixed network (signs beginning with 2);
- Call to national mobile network (signs beginning with 9).
What are the applicable fines?
With the new law, non-compliance, which used to be considered a serious offence has mild economic offence and may reach the following values:
- Natural person: 150€ a 500€
- Micro-enterprise: 250€ a 1 500€
- Small business: 600€ a 4 000€
- Medium-sized enterprise: 1 250€ a 8 000€
- Great company: 1 500€ a 12 000€
What are consumer helplines?
They are telephone lines that aim to help the consumer contact his supplier for matters related to the sale of a good or the provision of a service, such as technical problems and assistance, billing, payments, renewal or cancellation of services.
Any telephone line whose number starts with 800 is free of charge for the user.
What are value-added lines?
They are telephone lines with an additional cost to the base rate, that is, to what you pay for a normal call, according to your tariff.
