MEO Sues the Portuguese State for €81.7 Million at the Lisbon Administrative Court Over the 2023 Huawei 5G Exclusion — Industry Replacement Bill Pegged at €339 Million

MEO has filed an €81.7 million damages action against the Portuguese State at the Tribunal Administrativo de Círculo de Lisboa, demanding compensation for the cost of ripping out and replacing Huawei equipment after the Security Assessment Commission's 2023 decision pushed Chinese suppliers out of the country's 5G core and access networks. The claim names the Ministério Público and the Centro Jurídico do Estado as defendants and is one of the largest recent compensation actions filed against the State by a Portuguese telecoms operator.

MEO's filing argues the 2023 Comissão de Avaliação de Segurança decisions caused danos especiais e anormais — "special and abnormal damages" — a legal threshold the State must satisfy under Portugal's public-liability regime when administrative acts impose a disproportionate burden on a single private party. The operator's case is that the security ruling forced a forced supplier swap on commercial terms set by the remaining vendors, with no transition envelope from Lisbon.

What the 2023 Decision Did

The Comissão de Avaliação de Segurança — chaired by the cybersecurity authority and including representatives from the SIS, the GNS and the regulator ANACOM — concluded in 2023 that high-risk vendors should be excluded from the 5G core and access layers, mirroring the EU's 5G Cybersecurity Toolbox guidance. Huawei was not named in the act, but the criteria — country of origin, exposure to extra-territorial intelligence statutes, ownership opacity — produced an effective ban on Chinese 5G gear at the three national operators. MEO, NOS and Vodafone all had to plan replacement timelines and re-tender to Ericsson and Nokia.

The €339 Million Industry Tally

An EY study commissioned by Huawei in the wake of the ruling pegged the total Portuguese replacement bill at roughly €339 million across MEO, NOS and Vodafone — a figure that frames MEO's solo €81.7 million claim as broadly proportional to its market share rather than an outlier. NOS and Vodafone are not parties to today's Administrative Court filing, but the precedent set by MEO's case will shape whether the other two operators choose to litigate. Vodafone, in particular, had carried the heaviest Huawei footprint in its access network.

Why It Lands Now

Three years after the security ruling, MEO has now booked enough of the replacement capex to translate the loss into a quantified pleading. Filing in 2026 also keeps the action inside Portugal's three-year statute window for State liability claims tied to the 2023 administrative act. Altice Portugal — MEO's parent, currently mid-sale to a consortium led by Iliad and Warburg Pincus under EU and ANACOM merger review — has an incentive to surface the contingent asset before the deal closes, since a successful claim would crystallise State liability that the buyers would otherwise inherit on the asset side.

What This Means for Expats

• 5G coverage: the replacement programme is largely complete on the major-city access layer; rural rollout depended on the same vendor pivot and is now running on Ericsson / Nokia kit.
• Pricing pass-through: if MEO loses the case, the €81.7 million sits as a balance-sheet write-down. If it wins, the State pays — not consumers.
• Litigation calendar: Lisbon Administrative Court filings of this size typically run 18–36 months to a first-instance ruling, with the State usually appealing on quantum.
• Comparators: similar Huawei-replacement actions have been filed in Sweden and the Czech Republic; Portuguese case law on "danos especiais e anormais" under Lei 67/2007 has rarely awarded the full claim in technology cases.