A 25 Percent Ceiling on What Uber and Bolt Keep: Portugal's Rewritten Ride-Hailing Law Lands in the Official Gazette

Portugal's rewritten ride-hailing rulebook reached the official gazette on Tuesday. Lei n.º 59/2026, published in Diário da República (Journal of the Portuguese Republic) on 25 August, is the first amendment ever made to Lei n.º 45/2018, the law that has governed Uber, Bolt and the rest of the TVDE sector since 2018. It takes force on the first day of the third month after publication, which puts the new regime in place on 1 November 2026.

Parliament approved the overhaul in July and the taxi trade has already set out to challenge it. What the gazette adds is the definitive text, and it goes well beyond the headline change that let taxis onto the apps.

A ceiling on the platform's cut

The single change with the most immediate money attached sits in Article 15. The platform manager may charge an intermediation fee, and that fee may not exceed 25 percent of the value of the trip, excluding VAT. The price breakdown shown to the passenger must now itemise the commission the platform charged on that ride.

Platforms also pick up a bill of their own: a regulation and supervision contribution of 5 percent of the intermediation fees they collect, self-assessed monthly, with 40 percent of the proceeds going to the public transport fund.

Who may own what

A block of new prohibitions cuts across the sector's ownership structures. A platform manager may not own TVDE vehicles, nor finance or hold an interest in any business acquiring, renting or leasing them. Platforms are also barred from owning or financing TVDE operators and driver-training bodies, and operators from the training business too.

Comodato (loan-for-use) and usufruct contracts for assigning a car to the activity are banned outright, with one exception: a driver who owns the vehicle and drives it exclusively themselves.

Cars, drivers and the sticker on the windscreen

Vehicles must be under 10 years old from first registration, or 12 if purely electric, seat no more than nine including the driver, and go to inspection every year from year one. The identifying dístico becomes non-removable, with holographic anti-fraud security and a QR code that lets anyone confirm four things: that the car is authorised, its plate, the operator's licence number and that valid insurance exists.

Drivers face a 50-hour initial course, 80 percent attendance per module and a final exam of 30 questions in which 27 correct answers are needed to pass. Certificates run five years, renewed after an eight-hour refresher. A functional command of Portuguese is verified inside that course, and passengers get an in-app option to request a Portuguese-speaking driver. Anyone who has lived outside Portugal for six months or more in the previous five years must produce a foreign criminal record certificate, legalised or apostilled and translated.

Safety, liability and penalties

Platforms must offer an in-app emergency service placing a real-time call to the authorities and sharing the vehicle's location. Optional in-car video recording is permitted but switched off by default, needs express consent from both passenger and driver for each individual trip, captures image only with sound recording banned, and cannot carry a price penalty for anyone who declines it.

Portuguese law and Portuguese courts apply regardless of where a platform is based, and the platform is jointly and severally liable to users. Fines run from €250 to €4,500 for individuals and €5,000 to €44,000 for companies, with an accessory ban on the activity of up to two years, enforced across five bodies from the IMT to the Tax Authority.

What This Means for Expats

• Nothing changes before 1 November. Platforms then have 60 days to comply and operators and drivers 120 days, and the IMT can extend either deadline by up to 180 more.
• Check the sticker, not the app. The windscreen dístico will carry a QR code confirming the car is authorised, its plate, the operator licence and that insurance is valid. It is the first independent verification a passenger has had.
• If you drive TVDE, the 25 percent cap is the number to watch. It applies to the intermediation fee before VAT, and the fee charged on each trip must be shown in the price breakdown.
• Drivers who lived abroad face an extra document. Six months or more outside Portugal in the last five years triggers a foreign criminal record requirement, with legalisation and certified translation where needed.
• Cameras are opt-in, both ways. Video is off by default, needs consent from you and the driver for that trip, records no audio, and refusing it cannot cost you more.