Presidência do Conselho de Ministros (Presidency of the Council of Ministers)
Decree-Law
(This is not an official translation of the law)
Publicising audio-text services is specifically regulated by Decree-Law no. 175/99, of May 21.
The experience gained from applying said diploma has made it necessary to introduce certain measures aimed at strengthening consumer information rights and the protection of minors.
It is believed that in this way one can contribute toward improving the relationship of trust and confidence between audio-text service providers and users, as well as bring about greater transparency in running this activity.
Thus:
In terms of paragraph a) of point 1 of article 198 of the Constitution, the Government decrees the following:
Article 1
Alteration to article 2 of Decree-Law no. 175/99, of May 21
Article 2 of Decree-Law no. 175/99, of 21 May is hereby altered and shall read as follows:
«Article 2
Publicising audio-text services
1 - ...
2 - ...
3 - The publicising of audio-text services directed at minors shall be forbidden, in any and all manners and by means of any and all publicity supports, namely by integrating said publicity in publications, recordings, broadcasts or any other form of communication especially aimed at minors.
4 - ...
5 - ...
6 - ...
7 - Price information, referred to in point 2 of this article, shall be supplied to the consumer in characters that are identical, in both size and type, to those used for disseminating the audio-text line telephone number. Furthermore, in relation to advertisements broadcast on television, said information must be displayed throughout the entire screening of the advertisement.
8 - Any and all communication directly or indirectly aimed at promoting the provision of audio-text services must expressly and markedly identify its commercial nature, and namely refrain from using wording, forms and contents that may lead the receiver to conclude it is a personal message.»
Article 2
Amendment to Decree-Law no. 175/99, of 21 May
A new article shall be added to Decree-Law no. 175/99, of 21 May, and is worded as follows:
«Article 2-A
Holding competitions
1 - Audio-text service providers that hold any and all competitions through the audio-text system must inform the user of all conditions related to holding said competition.
2 - Rules related to holding a competition may not be supplied to the user by an audio-text service network.
3 - The advertisement must indicate clearly and precisely in easy-to-read characters the means through which the consumer can access the rules referred to in the previous point.
4 - Without prejudice to the adoption of other equally effective means, the rules related to holding competitions shall be conveyed to the consumer through a fixed telephone network line, subject to the tariff system in force, whose number is disseminated in the advertisement.»
Article 3
Alteration to point 1 of article 3 of Decree-Law no. 175/99, of May 21.
Point 1 of article 3 of Decree-Law no. 175/99, of May 21, shall read as follows:
«Article 3
[...]
1 - Non-compliance with the provisions of articles 2 and 2-A of the present diploma shall constitute an offence punishable with fines from PTE 100,000 to PTE 750,000 and from PTE 700,000 to PTE 9,000,000, according to whether said non-compliance was carried out by an individual person or a corporate body.
2 - ...
3 - ...»
Article 4
Coming into force
The present diploma shall come into force 30 days after it has been published.
Let it be published.
Seen and approved in Cabinet on March 15, 2001. - António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres - Guilherme - Oliveira Martins - Joaquim Augusto Nunes Pina Moura - Eduardo Luís Barreto Ferro Rodrigues - António Luís Santos Costa - Mário Cristina de Sousa - José Estêvão Cangarato Sasportes - José Manuel Lello Ribeiro de Almeida.
Enacted on April 18, 2001.
The President of the Republic, JORGE SAMPAIO.
Countersigned on April 26, 2001.
Acting Prime-Minister, Jaime José Matos da Gama.
