Lisbon, 11 February 2025
The consumer association Ius Omnibus (‘Ius’) has announced that yesterday’s decision by the Lisbon Court of Appeal may even allow for faster justice for Portuguese consumers who have been harmed by the ‘Banking Cartel’, and who are being represented by Ius in class actions before the Competition Court. The banks may escape fines, but Ius will do everything it can to ensure that they don’t escape compensating consumers for the 6 billion euros in damages they have caused them.
At the Competition Court in Santarém, 5 popular actions are pending in which all Portuguese consumers who were harmed by the ‘Banking Cartel’ over 11 years are represented (in practice, almost all consumers living in Portugal).
One of these cases has already been suspended and the others could still be suspended by the Court to await the outcome of the appeal against the Competition Authority’s decision. Given the banks’ track record and announced intention to use all the appeal options at their disposal, if the banks had lost their appeal at the Lisbon Court of Appeal, the outcome of the class actions would probably have been delayed for several years.
Yesterday’s judgement by the TRL could mean that banks don’t have to pay 225 million euros in fines. But the statute of limitations on these fines does not affect consumers’ right to compensation. The Competition Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union concluded that there had been a breach of competition law.
This decision fuels public outrage and emphasises the importance of holding these institutions accountable. Ius’ popular actions will probably become the only viable route to justice in these cases.
Ius will now have the opportunity to prove, once again (for the banks that have appealed the existence of the infringement), that this infringement existed, and that it caused damage to consumers, as the PCA also pointed out in its Decision. Expert economists have estimated that this damage totalled 6,000 million euros. And you won’t see your popular actions suspended for a long time due to the banks’ appeals.
Call to action
For more information on the banking cartel and these and other Ius class actions currently underway, see: http://carteldabanca.pt/ and https://iusomnibus.eu/pt/casos/.
You have been harmed by the banking cartel and are represented in these class actions if:
is currently resident in Portugal; and
took out a mortgage or consumer credit with a Portuguese bank between May 2002 and March 2013; and/or
c) purchased products / services from small and medium-sized Portuguese companies during the same period. To make sure you don’t miss out on the opportunity to get your compensation if these popular actions are successful, register at: https://carteldabanca.pt/pt/os-nossos-casos/cartel-da-banca/registe-se/