Parliament Moves to Stop Twenty-Two Competition Authority Cases Worth €800 Million From Going Out the Door on Prescription — Lawyers Warn the Retroactive Fix Will Land at the Constitutional Court

Parliament's Comissão de Economia, Obras Públicas, Planeamento e Habitação is processing a legislative initiative that would freeze the prescription clock on twenty-two open cases at the Autoridade da Concorrência (AdC), with combined fines of roughly €800 million at risk of falling away purely because the cases have aged out under the existing statute. Público first reported the draft on Wednesday after AdC's president Nuno Cunha Rodrigues testified in committee.

The largest single block is the AdC's 2022 ruling against the food-distribution cartel — Auchan, Modelo Continente, Pingo Doce/Jerónimo Martins, Lidl, Intermarché, Aldi, Mercadona and Cooplecnorte — fined €304 million for coordinating retail prices on consumer staples through Unilever, Modelez, Coca-Cola and other suppliers across 2002–2017. Those fines are under judicial appeal at the Tribunal da Concorrência, Regulação e Supervisão (TCRS) in Santarém. Several of the smaller files in the twenty-two-case bundle are bank-related contraventions and the Cartel da Banca matter that sat on prescription-risk lists for years before the AdC's 2019 reorganisation.

What the Existing Law Does — and Why It Bites

The 2012 Lei da Concorrência (Lei 19/2012) sets ordinary prescription at five years from the date of the infraction, with statutory pauses while the case is open at the AdC and while it is on judicial appeal. The pauses, however, are capped: total elapsed time, including all interruptions, cannot exceed seven and a half years. Many of the AdC's biggest investigations — built on years of cartel reconstruction from market data and dawn-raid evidence — bump up against that ceiling once they cross from the regulator into the courts. The 2022 retail-price decision is the most visible case where the calendar matters: every additional year of judicial review tightens the prescription clock.

A 2023 amendment already makes prescription harder for newly opened cases. The current parliamentary debate is over whether the change should be applied to the twenty-two cases already in the pipeline. AdC supports the retroactive application; the Government has sent positive signals; Chega and IL have raised constitutional concerns; and a vocal cohort of competition-law practitioners — including the firms representing the major retailers — argue that retroactive prescription rules violate the principle of legalidade do procedimento sancionatório enshrined in Article 29 of the Constitution.

The Constitutional Court Is the Likely Backstop

If Parliament approves the retroactive fix, the Constitutional Court will almost certainly be asked — by the President, the Provedor de Justiça, or by direct constitutional challenge from a defendant — to rule on its compatibility with the Constitution. The doctrine on retroactivity in administrative-sanction cases is settled in the milder direction (no retroactive worsening) but the Court has accepted procedural changes that affect ongoing cases when those changes do not alter the substance of the offence or the cap on the fine. The drafting of the prescription amendment will turn on that distinction.

What This Means for Expats

• The stakes show up at the supermarket. The food-distribution cartel decision concluded that consumer-staple prices were coordinated for over a decade, with measurable upward pressure on household weekly shop costs. Whether the €304 million fine is upheld or annulled determines whether deterrence holds.
• This is one of the most consequential competition-law debates in years. Foreign residents working in legal, financial or compliance roles will see this matter reshape how Portuguese antitrust deterrence is calibrated.
• Procedural fix, not outcome change. The amendment does not change verdicts already issued; it preserves the ability of courts to issue final rulings before the procedural clock runs out.
• Watch the Tribunal Constitucional calendar. If the amendment is challenged, the Constitutional Court's processing time will itself be a clock-management variable. Final resolution of the underlying retail-price appeal could slip into 2027–2028.
• Compliance signal. Foreign companies operating in Portuguese supply chains should expect enforcement focus on coordinated pricing and information exchange — the AdC's investigative methodology in the retail file is now its template.