Decree-Law No. 59/2021, of 14 July, was published establishing the regime applicable to the availability and dissemination of telephone lines for consumer contact.

This new legal regime comes into force on 1 November 2021, clarifying and densifying the current legal framework, based on the jurisprudence of the Judicial Court of the European Union (TJEU).

This information is particularly relevant for companies, as this legal regime applies to the telephone lines for consumer contact provided by:

a)         Suppliers of goods;

b)         Service providers; and,

c)         Entities providing essential public services, namely water supply, electricity, natural gas and piped liquefied petroleum gases, electronic communications, postal services, waste water collection and treatment, urban solid waste management and passenger transport .

This new legal regime provides for the type of telephone lines to be made available, the means and form of publicizing these lines and the costs for consumers, as well as the respective economic administrative offences.

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