Portugal is one of a small number of Member States with a general customer service regime, and its central obligation is easy to state: once the call is connected, service by a human operator must begin within sixty seconds. Decree-Law 134/2009 of 2 June has been in force since 29 November 2009.
Where operations go wrong is in the counting. Article 6(2) and (3) provides that, where there is a menu, the period runs from the moment the caller selects the option for contact with a professional — not from the moment the call connects. In an operation with a three-level menu, the two readings differ by several minutes, and only one of them is the law.
The Portuguese regime in outline
| Article | Obligation |
|---|---|
| Article 2 | Scope: defined by the existence of a customer telephone relationship centre made available to the consumer, not by sector or size |
| Article 4 | General operating rules: dedicated numbers, adequate means, daytime hours with personal service, publication of the number and its cost |
| Article 5 | Prohibited practices: onward routing at additional cost, advertising during hold, logging the caller’s number |
| Article 6 | Service: sixty seconds to a human operator; a maximum of five initial menu options, one of which must be contact with a professional; burden of proof on the trader for the first ninety days |
| Article 7 | Outbound: 09:00 to 22:00 in the recipient’s time zone; identification of the operator, of the trader represented and of the purpose; end the call courteously on request |
| Article 8 | Information: Portuguese language; immediate reply or within three working days; transfer within sixty seconds; the call is not to be ended before service is complete |
| Article 9 | Repealed in 2010. It had required an interaction history and call recording to be kept for a minimum of ninety days |
| Article 10 | Serious economic administrative offence, punishable under the Economic Administrative Offences Regime |
| Article 11 | Enforcement: sector regulator, Directorate-General for Consumer Affairs and the Food and Economic Safety Authority |
Article 9 required the recording and the interaction history to be kept for at least ninety days. It was repealed in 2010 by a budget-execution decree. Article 6(8), which places on the trader the burden of proving compliance during those same first ninety days, was not repealed.
What remains is an obligation to prove without any rule saying what evidence to create or how long to keep it. Each operation must therefore set and justify its own retention period — and be able to defend that reasoning to the supervisory authority and to the data subject.
What this site addresses
Each has a concrete answer on the solutions page.
The period counted from connection
The group service-level standard measures from connection, as most do, and the Portuguese rule measures from the menu selection. The operation reports compliance and is not compliant.
View solutionA ninety-day retention applied without reasoning
Ninety days is applied because the group applies it, or because the repealed Portuguese rule once required it. The period may well be appropriate; the written reasoning that would justify it does not exist.
View solutionServices
Bounded products, with defined scope, method and deliverables.
Mystery Call Verification
Independent measurement of waiting time, menu structure and identification, by anonymous call
SpecificationCompliance File for Customer Service
Building the documentary file that can be produced to contracting authorities, client auditors and regulators
SpecificationMulti-Jurisdiction Exposure Assessment
Determination of which national regimes apply to an operation serving more than one Member State
SpecificationWhere to go next
Framework
The subject matter, the applicable regime and what has changed in recent years.
ReadMarket
Who is covered, by category of undertaking, and with what priority.
ViewTraining
Training paths on the applicable regulatory framework.
View programmesFAQ
The questions that always come up, answered with a source.
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