“No court has declared the non-existence of the infraction attributed to the banks by the Competition Authority. It was not a matter of acquitting the anti-competitive practice in question,” stated Nuno Cunha Rodrigues in his initial intervention during the hearing in the Budget and Finance Committee.
When questioned by deputies about the impact of such processes, he considered that it created a “virtuous cycle in companies.”
“Nowadays there is much greater awareness of the need to respect competition law,” he asserted.
In September 2024, the Competition Court confirmed the fines of 225 million euros imposed by the Competition Authority (AdC) on 11 banks, determining that it was proven that between 2002 and 2013, there was a “collusion” to exchange credit information and that they “aligned commercial practices” to distort competition.
The banks filed appeals, and in February, the Lisbon Court of Appeal declared the infraction time-barred, counting the time during which matters were under review by the European justice system.
Both the AdC and the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed appeals to the Constitutional Court to try to stop the statutes of limitations, but these were rejected.
In June, the AdC lodged a complaint with the Conference of Judges of the Constitutional Court regarding this body’s decision not to consider the appeals filed, with a response awaited.
Last week, heard in the parliamentary committee for Economy, the president of the AdC mentioned a “significant contradiction” in the Court of Appeal’s jurisprudence regarding limitation periods and that the interpretation that led the Appeal to decide the statute of limitations for the banks’ fines was not applied in another case, related to the CMEC – Maintenance Costs of Contractual Balance, in which EDP Produção was sanctioned by the Competition Authority for abuse of dominant position.
However, he added that in the future, this issue “does not arise in new cases” since the amendment made in 2022 to the Competition Law establishes that the statute of limitations is suspended for the period during which the decision of the Competition Authority is subject to judicial appeal.
Asked whether an interpretative law to clarify that already initiated processes are suspended in Portugal while under review by the European Court of Justice would be important, the president of the AdC stated that this is up to the parliament, but he doubts that “legal alteration would help solve the problem.”
