The Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC) has hit the nation’s three largest telecommunications operators and a major consulting firm with a combined fine of €13,351,000. The decision follows a thorough antitrust investigation that uncovered an illegal, coordinated pact to force subscription television customers to watch unskippable advertisements when accessing automatic channel recordings.
According to the antitrust regulator, the three dominant telecom giants alongside the consulting agency systematically degraded pay-TV services across Portugal. By simultaneously introducing mandatory ad placement into the playback of recorded content, the operators effectively trapped consumers. Dissatisfied subscribers found themselves with no viable alternative on the market, neutralizing the typical consumer impulse to switch providers and eliminating normal competitive risks for the businesses involved.
Beyond consumer exploitation, the cartel severely disrupted the business-to-business side of the media landscape. The AdC found that the agreement completely standardized the sale of advertising spaces to media agencies and corporate sponsors. By locking in uniform terms for pricing, discounts, and commercial conditions, the operators erased any healthy, organic competition among themselves. The network of collusion even extended to standardizing the terms under which television networks authorized the pairing of advertisements with their original broadcasts.
The regulatory crackdown marked the end of a highly complex, turbulent legal battle that began in August 2020 following local investigative media reports. The AdC initially issued a Statement of Illegality in late 2021, but the entire prosecution hit a major roadblock when an administrative court invalidated key email evidence. The ruling targeted an unconstitutional loop in Portuguese law that allowed the AdC to seize electronic communications with only a public prosecutor’s green light, rather than a judge’s direct authorization. This setback forced investigators to return the entire process to square one in early 2024, building a fresh case file that culminated in a secondary Statement of Illegality late last year.
In a highly unusual move, the AdC chose to scrub the specific identities of the participating telecom operators and the consulting firm from its public statement, labeling them anonymously as Companies A, B, C, and D. This self-censorship was a precautionary measure forced by recent injunctions from Portuguese Administrative Courts in unrelated cases, where targeted corporations successfully barred the regulator from naming them in press releases. While the AdC explicitly noted its disagreement with this legal interpretation and is currently fighting the restriction via pending appeals in higher courts, the agency maintained it will still fulfill its legal obligation to publish unredacted versions of final condemnatory decisions directly on its government website.
The division of the multi-million-euro penalty was mathematically tied to each company’s specific turnover, calculated using an identical percentage to reflect the gravity and long duration of the cartel, which was actively in effect from August 2019 until its suspension in May 2025. Company A managed to reduce its legal exposure by utilizing a formal settlement procedure, waiving its right to litigate the facts and voluntarily paying a capped fine of €5,170,000. Company B was handed a €4,060,000 fine, and Company C was hit with €3,876,000. Company D, the consulting firm that provided operational and technological scaffolding for the cartel, faces a €245,000 penalty. Under Portugal’s antitrust laws, individual corporate penalties are capped at a maximum of 10% of a firm’s total turnover from the preceding fiscal year.
