Economia e Mar
Administrative Rule
Law No 16/2022, of 16 August, which approved the new Electronic Communications Law, transposing three European directives into national law, including Directive EU 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 December 2018, establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (Electronic Communications Law), enshrined in its Title V, among other matters, the rights of end-users of electronic communications services.
The framework of rules for the protection of these users, which also includes consumer rights, establishes the means for suspending and ceasing electronic communications contracts.
The means of cessation provided for therein include termination, expiry and cancellation. Paragraph 5 of article 138 of the Electronic Communications Law provides for the possibility for consumers to exercise their rights through an electronic platform created for this purpose and managed by Direção-Geral do Consumidor (the Directorate General for the Consumer), the functionalities of which must be approved by an administrative rule of the member of the Government responsible for the area of consumer protection.
Therefore, in order to facilitate the cessation of contracts and the mobility of consumers and in compliance with the above-mentioned legal provision, this Administrative Rule establishes the functionalities of the new platform, called “Platform for Cessation of Contracts”, hereinafter the “Platform”.
The Platform allows consumers to make requests for information with a view to exercising their rights to cease electronic communications contracts, as well as to submit applications to cease these contracts, notwithstanding the possibility of submitting such applications by traditional means and the fact that the processing of applications for the ceasing of contracts submitted through the Platform is without prejudice to compliance with the applicable sector regulations at any given time.
In the first phase of operation of the new Platform, consumers can exercise their right to cease their electronic communications contracts through termination.
In the second phase of operation of this digital tool, other functionalities will be made available. In particular, it will be possible, under the new Electronic Communications Law, for consumers to exercise the right to suspend their contracts or the right to cease contracts via expiry or cancellation. Furthermore, it will also be possible to communicate the death of parties to contracts.
Autoridade Nacional das Comunicações and Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (the National Data Protection Commission) were consulted.
Consultation with Conselho Nacional do Consumo (the National Consumer Council) was undertaken.
Therefore:
The Government, through the Secretary of State for Tourism, Commerce and Services, under paragraph 6 of article 138 of Law No 16/2022, of 16 August, and point e) of paragraph 12.1 and point 12.4, both of Order No 7476/2022, of 3 June, published in the Official Gazette, Series II, No 114, hereby orders as follows:
Article 1
Subject-matter
This Administrative Rule approves the functionalities of the “Platform for Cessation of Contracts”, hereinafter the “Platform”, to which electronic communications operators are subject, under paragraphs 5 and 6 of article 138 of Law No 16/2022, of 16 August.
Article 2
Platform for Cessation of Contracts
1 – The Platform allows consumers, as defined in point h) of paragraph 1 of article 3 of Law No 16/2022 of 16 August, parties to electronic communications contracts:
a) To submit requests for contractual information;
b) To submit applications for suspension of electronic communications contracts, under article 137 of Law No 16/2022, of 16 August;
c) To submit applications for cessation of electronic communications contracts via termination, expiry or cancellation, respectively under articles 136, 137 and 138 of Law No 16/2022, of 16 August.
2 – In addition to the functionalities set out in the previous paragraph, the Platform allows an interested party to communicate the death of the party to the electronic communications contract under the general terms.
3 – Prior to the submission of requests for contractual information through the Platform, the consumer shall be required to authenticate himself/herself on the Platform using the mobile digital key, the Citizen Card or access data to the Tax Office Portal.
4 – The management of the Platform is incumbent on the Directorate General for the Consumer (DGC), which shall ensure compliance with the security requirements set out in Resolution of the Council of Ministers No 41/2018, of 28 March.
5 – The General Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy (SGE) is responsible for the Platform’s storage and hosting through a cloud computing service.
6 – The Platform provides electronic communications operators with access to requests submitted to the Platform by consumers, allowing for their management and processing, so as to address consumer requests.
7 – The platform provides Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM) with access to requests submitted to the platform by consumers and to the respective responses of electronic communications operators, for the purpose of verifying compliance with obligations which electronic communications operators are required to abide by and which ANACOM is responsible for monitoring.
Article 3
Access to the Platform
1 – Platform access is available at www.cessacaodecontratos.pt.
2 – Without prejudice to the preceding paragraph, access to the Platform shall be provided:
a) On home pages of electronic communications operators’ websites or on pages of electronic communications operators’ websites specifically intended to explain procedures for ceasing electronic communications contracts or on customer support pages, provided that these enable consumers to access the Platform in a clear and intuitive manner;
b) On the websites of DGC, ANACOM and the ePortugal portal.
Article 4
Requests for contractual information
1 – Submission of requests for cessation of contracts shall be preceded by the submission of a request for contractual information, as defined in this article.
2 – The request for contractual information begins by validating the consumer’s e-mail address.
3 – After validating the electronic mail address under the terms of the previous paragraph, the consumer fills in a specific form available on the Platform, mandatorily providing the following data:
a) Name;
b) Civil identification number;
c) Taxpayer number;
d) E-mail address;
e) Customer number and contract number;
f) Name of the operator responsible for the contract.
4 – The electronic communications operator replies to the request for contractual information in the specific form made available on the Platform within three working days.
5 – The response of the electronic communications operator to the request for contractual information must be accompanied by a link to access the Platform, through which the consumer, if he/she so wishes, may submit a request to cease the electronic communications contract.
Article 5
Requests for cessation of contracts
1 – For the purpose of submitting requests for cessation of electronic communications contracts, the consumer shall submit the request for cessation by filling in the appropriate form available on the Platform.
2 – Following receipt of a request for cessation of an electronic communications contract, the electronic communications operator ensures the respective processing, in accordance with the terms and deadlines applicable to the procedures required for cessation of contracts at the initiative of subscribers, as defined by ANACOM.
Article 6
Processing and retention of personal data
1 – The DGC, as the Platform manager, shall be responsible for the processing of personal data within the meaning of paragraph 7 of article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 27 April 2016, on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR), and shall in particular ensure that data subjects have the right to information and access to data, that inaccuracies and omissions are corrected and that unduly recorded data are deleted.
2 – The procedures for exercising the rights of holders of personal data are set out in the Platform’s privacy policy.
3 – SGE, as the body responsible for storage on the Platform, shall act as a processor within the meaning of paragraph 8 of article 4 of the GDPR, and shall be responsible for implementing appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security of personal data undergoing processing that is appropriate to the risk, taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing, as well as the risks, varying in likelihood and severity, for the rights and freedoms of natural persons, pursuant to article 32 of GDPR.
4 – For the specific purposes set out in article 2 of this statutory instrument, electronic communications operators and ANACOM shall act as third parties, within the meaning of paragraph 10 of article 4 of GDPR.
5 – For the purpose of monitoring compliance with applicable legislation by the competent authorities, namely ANACOM, requests submitted to the Platform by consumers, the respective responses from electronic communications operators and, in general, interactions regarding each request made through the Platform shall be stored for a period of 8 years, after which they shall be deleted, unless otherwise provided for by law.
Article 7
Records for statistical purposes
For strictly statistical purposes, parameter values relating to the number of interactions, procedures opened, procedures cancelled and procedures completed shall be automatically produced and made available to DGC.
Article 8
Integration and interactions of electronic communications operators in the Platform
1 - Electronic communications operators shall be required:
a) To integrate the Platform under the terms and by the deadlines set out in the following article;
b) To develop the best efforts and to collaborate with DGC and respective partners with a view to their integration in the Platform under the terms and deadlines established in this Administrative Rule, namely by allocating the human resources, technical means, materials, equipment and products necessary and suitable for such purpose.
2 – Electronic communications operators shall access the Platform, where they shall have access to the requests submitted by consumers and provide the respective responses.
3 – The DGC provides each electronic communications operator with an administration credential, which allows each electronic communications operator access to the Platform, through the creation of nominal access credentials or through the interconnection of systems, namely via webservices, in which case access is only allowed to machines authorised by each electronic communications operator.
4 – For the purpose of the preceding paragraph, electronic communications operators shall create access credentials that allow the identification of the worker or employee assigned to each credential and configure the credentials to be used within the scope of the interconnection with their systems.
Article 9
Transitional rule
The Platform shall be implemented and become operational in two phases, as follows:
a) In the first phase of operation, the functionality for ceasing electronic communications contracts via termination shall be made available, under article 136 of Law No 16/2022, of 16 August;
b) In the second phase of operation, to be implemented by 30 September 2023, the following functionalities shall be made available:
i) Suspension of electronic communications contracts, under article 137 of Law No 16/2022, of 16 August;
ii) Cessation of electronic communications contracts due to expiry or cancellation, respectively under articles 137 and 138 of Law No 16/2022, of 16 August;
iii) Notification of the death of parties to electronic communications contracts;
iv) Authentication through access data of the Tax Office Portal.
Article 10
Entry into force
This Administrative Rule shall enter into force on the day following its publication.
The Secretary of State for Tourism, Commerce and Services, Rita Baptista Marques, on 24 November 2022.
