Luxembourg, May 8, 2025 (Lusa) - The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday ordered Portugal to pay €2.5 million for late transposition of the EU Copyright Directive.
According to the CJEU, in a statement, the amount was set "taking into account the seriousness of the infringement, its duration and the need to ensure the dissuasive effect of the financial penalty in order to prevent recurrence".
The infringement procedure was opened by Brussels in July 2021, with a letter of formal notice being sent, followed by a reasoned opinion in May 2022, but transposition only took place through Decree-Law No 47/2023, which entered into force on 4 July 2023.
The CJEU recalls that transposition took place well after the deadline, with non-compliance lasting more than two years.
"The Court rejects all of Portugal's arguments against the imposition of a lump sum penalty, in particular those relating to the political crisis which led to the calling of early elections which rendered the proposal for a transposition act which was being examined by the national Parliament null and void, and to the shortness of the time-limit for transposition of the Directive, in view of the complexity of the matters on which it is concerned," can be read in the statement released today by the CJEU.
In June 2023, the two decree-laws transposing the 2019 European directives on copyright and related rights were published in the official government gazette.
Decree-law 46/2023 transposed European directive 2019/789 into Portuguese law, which "lays down rules on the exercise of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions by broadcasters and to the retransmission of television and radio programmes".
For its part, diploma 47/2023 transposed directive 2019/790, the main premise of which was "the fact that the online distribution of content protected by copyright is, by its nature, transnational, so that only mechanisms adopted on a European scale can ensure the correct functioning of the market for the distribution of works and other protected material, as well as ensuring the sustainability of the publishing sector in the face of the challenges of the digital environment".
Earlier, the country's president promulgated the two documents, noting in a statement "the positive evolution of the articles [of decree-law no. 47/2023], compared to the initial version known at the time of the approval of the legislative authorisation law, as well as the fact that the government refers to compliance with recent CJEU case law".
The decree-laws came about as a result of government action, after the Parliament approved an authorisation for the executive to legislate on the subject.
The draft bills were placed under public consultation, and the National Consumer Council was heard in both cases.
Before the parliamentary vote at the beginning of the year, 11 associations called for the directives to be transposed by parliament rather than by the government, in order to guarantee greater transparency in a matter that regulates ‘essential aspects’ such as freedom of expression and the right to education.
In a statement, the associations, mostly linked to the areas of technology and information, considered that the transposition of the directive on copyright and related rights in the digital single market should be the subject of "broad and participatory public debate".
On the other hand, nine other associations, representing sectors such as music, audiovisual, cinema, media, publishers, booksellers and agents of artists and producers of shows, called for "rapid transposition in accordance with the spirit of the directive".
IG/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
