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Guide

Omnibus & Price-Reduction Rules in Portugal

Omnibus Directive

Selling into Portugal brings you within the reach of the Omnibus Directive (EU) 2019/2161 whenever you promote price reductions. The Directive has applied across the EU since 28 May 2022, and for e-commerce its headline feature is the 30-day lowest-prior-price rule. Portugal has transposed the Directive into national law, and enforcement is handled by the Portuguese consumer-protection authorities.

This guide explains what the Omnibus rules require of a store supplying Portuguese consumers and how the national machinery fits around them. For the wider framework, see our Omnibus law page and the complete Omnibus guide.

The 30-day lowest-price rule

At the heart of the Omnibus pricing rules is a simple discipline. When you announce a price reduction, you must show the prior price, and that prior price is the lowest price the product was offered at during at least the 30 days before the reduction. The point is to prevent traders from puffing up a price just before a promotion to make the saving look larger than it truly is.

So the reference price behind a “was/now” display is not free to choose. If the product was cheaper at some point in the previous 30 days, that lower figure is the benchmark your reduction must be based on.

What else the Omnibus rules cover

Beyond price reductions, the Directive introduced several transparency duties that apply in Portugal as elsewhere:

  • Consumer reviews — you must say whether and how you verify that reviews come from genuine purchasers.
  • Ranking transparency — the main parameters behind search rankings must be disclosed.
  • Marketplace disclosures — marketplaces must indicate whether a seller is a trader or a private person.

Who enforces the rules in Portugal

Enforcement in Portugal sits with the national consumer-protection framework. The Direção-Geral do Consumidor (DGC) is the consumer directorate, and the ASAE — the economic and food safety authority — carries out inspection and enforcement action against unfair commercial practices, including misleading discount claims. Between them, these bodies give the Omnibus pricing rules real teeth in the Portuguese market.

The Portuguese process works in Portuguese

Portugal operates in Portuguese, so consumer information, complaints and enforcement correspondence are conducted in the language. An international seller should plan for that, and ensure customer-facing pricing and promotional wording are clear to Portuguese consumers.

In Portugal the Omnibus rules are enforced nationally, with the DGC and ASAE active on unfair commercial practices — and the process runs in Portuguese.

A practical checklist for the Portuguese market

  • Show the lowest price from the preceding 30 days as the reference for any reduction.
  • Keep price history so you can substantiate the reference price displayed.
  • State whether reviews are verified as coming from real purchasers.
  • Disclose the main ranking parameters where you present search results.
  • Clarify trader-versus-private status if you run a marketplace.

If you would like a structured review of how your store presents discounts to Portuguese buyers, our PrestaShop compliance audit checks your pricing displays against the applicable rules.

This article is educational and does not constitute legal advice.