ICLG to Merger Control 2024 – Portugal

Pedro de Gouveia e Melo e Dzhamil Oda assinam o capítulo de Portugal do guia “ICLG to Merger Control 2024”, uma publicação do Global Legal Group.

"The administrative authority competent to enforce competition law in Portugal, including the rules on merger control, is the Autoridade da Concorrência (“Competition Authority” or “Authority”). The Competition Authority has broad investigative, regulatory and sanctioning powers in merger control, and is headed by the Conselho de Administração (“Board”), a body composed of three to five members, appointed by the Government, for a non-renewable six-year term.

The current Board is headed by the President, Prof. Nuno da Cunha Rodrigues, a professor of law appointed in March 2023, and two other members, Prof. Miguel Moura e Silva, a professor of law and former restrictive practices director at the Authority, appointed in August 2019, and Dr. Ana Sofia Rodrigues, an economist and former Chief Economist, appointed in April 2023. According to its Statutes (Decree-Law 125/2014 of 18 August 2014), the Authority is an independent public entity that has administrative, financial and management autonomy, as well as organisational, functional and technical independence and its own assets. The members of the Board are independent from the Government, cannot be dismissed except in the limited situations established in the Statutes, cannot hold any other public or private office during their term (except for lecturing and investigation, so long as unremunerated), and are subject to a strict incompatibilities’ regime, both during and after their term of office."