According to its ruling No. 1/2010 published in the Official Journal (Diário da República) of 21 January, the Supreme Court of Justice decided to make jurisprudence uniform, clarifying that the right to receive payment of the price of services provided by mobile operators expires within a period of six months subsequent to their delivery.
It is noted, however, that this decision refers to the payment of services rendered between June 2001 and May 2002, and that the Court took the position that «for the present appeal no validity is given to the repeal of Decree-Law No. 381-A/97 nor to the exclusion of the telephone service from the scope of Law No. 23/96, both enacted by Law No. 5/2004, nor to the changes enacted by Law No. 12/2008 and 24/2008 to which Law No. 23/96 was subject».
The process likewise involved making uniform ''jurisprudence concerning the interpretation of the rules set out in paragraph 1 of article 10 of Law No. 23/96 of 26 July in its original text, and paragraph 4 of article 9 of Decree Law No. 381-A/97 of 30 December (governing the regime of access to the activity of operator of public telecommunications networks and provider of telecommunications services for public use), the texts of which, likewise, stipulate, «The right to demand payment of the service shall expire within six months subsequent to its provision»''.
Further information:
- Acórdão do Supremo Tribunal de Justiça n.º 1/2010, publicado no Diário da República, de 21 de Janeiro de 2010 http://dre.pt/pdf1sdip/2010/01/01400/0021700224.pdf
