Brussels Sets Portugal a Two-Month Deadline on the EU's New Consumer Credit Rules, Seven Weeks Before Borrowers Are Due to Get Them

The European Commission on Thursday gave Portugal two months to finish writing the new EU consumer credit directive into national law. The rules are meant to protect borrowers across the Union from 20 November 2026, seven weeks from now, and Portugal has not yet told Brussels it has adopted them.

The warning came in the Commission's October infringement package, which also sent Portugal three further formal demands: to stop dolphins and porpoises drowning in fishing nets, to carry out the checks required by EU port and ship security law, and to finish adopting the latest EU banking capital rules.

What the consumer credit directive changes

Directive (EU) 2023/2225 replaces the 2008 directive that Portugal wrote into law through Decreto-Lei n.º 133/2009 (Decree-Law 133/2009). Member states had until 20 November 2025 to adopt the new rules and must apply them from 20 November 2026.

The changes that matter most to households:

• Small loans are covered. The old directive left out credit under 200 euros, a gap that, the new text notes, took in many short-term, high-cost loans. The new rules apply from the first euro up to 100,000 euros, against a ceiling of 75,000 euros before.
• "Buy now, pay later" comes in. Interest-free deferred payment is excluded only where no third party provides the credit and the bill is settled within 50 days, or within 14 days for certain large online sellers.
• A thorough creditworthiness check is required before any loan, carried out in the consumer's interest. Where it is automated, the borrower can ask for a human review and an explanation.
• No unsolicited credit. Lenders may not grant credit the consumer has not asked for and explicitly agreed to.
• Fourteen calendar days to withdraw from a credit agreement without giving a reason.
• Debt advice. Member states must make independent debt advisory services available to people in difficulty, at limited cost, and lenders must refer struggling borrowers to them.

After letters to 23 member states in January, sixteen, including Portugal, Spain, France and the Netherlands, have still not notified complete transposition. If Portugal does not act within two months, the Commission says it may take the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union and ask for financial penalties.

Portugal already caps consumer credit through maximum rates that the Bank of Portugal sets each quarter; from October, a personal loan for education or health may not exceed 8.2 percent.

Dolphins, ports and banks

The bycatch case is older. Brussels says Portugal has no effective system to monitor how many bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins and harbour porpoises are caught by accident in fishing gear and has not taken the conservation measures the Habitats Directive requires, and has not taken appropriate steps to avoid disturbing them, through the risk of bycatch, in the Natura 2000 sites designated for their protection. A letter of formal notice was sent in November 2023; the Commission acknowledges "some national measures" since, but says they fall short.

On maritime security, the Commission finds that Portugal does not carry out all the administrative and control tasks needed to apply the EU rules on the security of ships, port facilities and ports, a case opened in November 2025.

The fourth reasoned opinion concerns the Sixth Capital Requirements Directive for banks, which was due in national law by 10 January 2026. Portugal also received two new letters of formal notice over late customs IT systems for exports and imports.

The package follows six letters of formal notice sent to Portugal last month, and comes while Portugal is already paying a daily fine over unprotected nature sites.