(This is not an official translation of the law) 
Law No. 82/2021 November 30th 
Summary: Surveillance, control, removal and impediment of access to protected content 
in a digital environment. 
The Assembly of the Republic decrees, under the terms of paragraph c) of article 161 of 
the Constitution, the following: 
CHAPTER I  
General provisions Article 1  
Object  
1 - This law establishes:  
a) The procedures for monitoring, controlling, removing and preventing access in the 
digital environment to content protected by copyright and related rights; 
b) The administrative procedure to be adopted in the event of unlawful provision of content protected by copyright and related rights, including the obligations, within the scope of that procedure, of intermediary providers of network services, defined in paragraph 5 of article 4 º of Decree- Law n.º 7/2004 , of January 7th, in its current wording. 
2 - The provisions of this law do not apply to providers of online content sharing services, 
as defined in paragraph 6 of article 2 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council, of 17 April 2019, on copyright and related rights in the digital single market, which are held accountable under the terms of article 17 of the same diploma and the legislation that transposes it into the national legal order. 
3 - This law does not affect the application of the provisions: 
a) In Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 17 April 
2019, on copyright and related rights in the digital single market, and in the legislation that transposes it into the national legal order; 
b) In the Code of Copyright and Related Rights, approved by Decree-L
 aw No. 63/85 , of 
March 14, in its current wording; c) In D
irective 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 22 May 
2001, on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the 
information society, and in Law no. 2004 , of August 24, in its current wording, which 
transposes it to the national legal order; d) In Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of April 29, 
2004, on the respect of intellectual property rights, and in Law No. 16/2008 , of April 1, 
which transposes it to the national legal order. 
Article 2  
Competence  
1 - It is incumbent upon the General Inspectorate of Cultural Activities (IGAC), as the 
sectoral supervisory body in matters of copyright and related rights, within the scope of 
Decree- Law no. 7/2004, of 7 January, in its wording current legislation, supervision, 
control and regulation under the terms set out in this law.  
2 - It is incumbent upon the general inspector of cultural activities to determine the 
removal or impediment of access to protected content. 
CHAPTER II  
Sector supervision Article 3  
Supervision and control powers 
1 - When ever the IGAC, ex officio or following a complaint, identifies the provision, by 
a website or Internet service, of contents protected by copyright and related rights, without 
the authorization of the holders of those rights, it notifies the person responsi ble for 
providing the content in question in order, within a maximum period of 48 hours, to stop this availability and remove the service or content from the Internet. 
2 - The notification referred to in the previous number must also be made known to the 
intermediary provider of accommodation services, whenever elements are available that 
allow it to be identified and contacted. 3 - For the purposes of this law, anyone who: unlawfully makes available content 
protected by copyright and related rights is considered to be: 
a) In any way communicate, make available to the public or store protected content, 
without authorization from the holders of copyright and related rights; 
b) Provides services or means intended to be used by third parties for the violation of 
copyright and related rights, or which are intended to interfere with the normal and regular functioning of the market for works and services; 
c) Provide services aimed at neutralizing effective measures of a technological nature for 
the protection of copyright and related rights or information devices for the electronic management of rights. 
4 - Once the period provided for in paragraph 1 has elapsed without the cessation of 
availability being verified, the IGAC notifies the intermediary providers of  network services so that they remove or make access to the content in question impossible, in 
accordance with the procedures provided for in article 5th 
5 - There is no need for the notification provided for in paragraph 1, with immediate 
notification to the intermediary providers of network services provided for in the previous 
number, in the following situations:  
a) When the application of the 48- hour period substantially reduces the usefulness of the 
determination of removal or access impediment, namely  due to the fact that the 
availability occurs in real time and for a limited period; 
b) When it is not possible to obtain the identification and the way to contact the person 
responsible for making the content in question available.  
6 - Without prejudice t o the possibility of resorting to means of judicial protection of 
protected rights, there is no reason to notify intermediary providers of network services under the terms and for the purposes set out in paragraph 4, when the elements contained in the proc edure give rise to doubts based on the ownership of the rights in question or 
the legitimacy of the use of the contents by the person responsible for making them available.  
7 - This procedure does not affect the determination of possible criminal responsibility, 
in general terms.  
Article 4  
Complaint  
1 - The holder of the injured copyright or related right, or whoever represents him, submits 
to the IGAC the denunciation of the illicit availability on a network of content over which he holds the title.  
2 - The complaint must contain, namely, the following elements:  
a) Designation of the site, page or blog and domain and subdomain name, whenever applicable, the form and location of the works, artistic performances, phonograms, videograms or transmissions, in the cases provided for in paragraph a), or of the services referred to in b) and c), all of paragraph 3 of the previous article, as well as the date and time when the respective availability was verified;  
b) Indication of the links, hyperlinks, screen prints  and any elements capable of 
identifying the protected contents and the website where they are unlawfully made available or the services referred to in paragraphs b) and c) of paragraph 3 of the previous article;  
c) Identification, in the cases provided for in subparagraph a) of paragraph 3 of the previous article, of a sample of the works, artistic performances, phonograms, videograms or transmissions illicitly made available, of the respective rights holders, and, whenever applicable, of the collective management entities that represent them;  d) Indication, whenever possible and applicable, of the number of works, artistic 
performances, phonograms, videograms or transmissions made available on the website without authorization from the holders of copyright  and related rights;  
e) Identification, whenever possible, of the person allegedly responsible for making the content in question available and of the intermediary provider of the hosting service associated with the Internet Protocol (IP) where the illicit content is hosted;  
f) Declaration, under oath, that the use, on the site in question, of the protected content referred to in subparagraph c) was not authorized by the holders of copyright and related rights, nor by their legitimate representatives.  
3 - The IGAC has a maximum period of 10 days to carry out the acts provided for in this 
law, except in the case provided for in paragraph a) of paragraph 5 of article 3. 
4 - The IGAC's final decision on the complaint is always notified to the complainant, to 
the person responsible for the site or Internet service in question and, whenever the 
available elements allow, to the intermediary provider of accommodation services.  
Article 5  
Duties of intermediary network service providers  
1 - Without prejudice to compl iance with other legal and regulatory duties relating to the 
exercise of their activity, intermediary network service providers are obliged to comply, 
within a maximum period of 48 hours from their notification, with the determinations of 
the inspector gen eral of cultural activities in order to remove or disable access, availability 
and use of content protected by copyright and related rights. 
2 - For the purposes of the preceding paragraph, they are obliged to comply with the 
determinations of the IGAC to remove or make access to protected works or content 
impossible, namely by preventing access to a certain uniform resource locator (URL) or system of names of associated domain (DNS), or access to content made available by a given IP, the following intermediary network service providers:  
a) Intermediary providers of simple transport services, and those providing Internet access services;  
b) Intermediary providers of network content association services;  
c) Intermediary providers of storage services on a main, intermediary or other basis, provided that the protected content is stored on their servers.  
3 - The removal or impediment of access to the contents made available, by preventing 
access to a certain IP, is conditioned to the verification that that ad dress is typically and 
essentially, or repeatedly and recurrently, used for the illicit provision of works or other material protected by copyright and related rights, other uses being non- existent or 
marginal.  
4 - Intermediary network service providers ar e also responsible for:  a) Immediately inform the IGAC when they become aware of illegal activities that are 
carried out through the services they provide, whenever there is manifest illegality;  
b) Comply with requests for identification of recipients of s ervices with whom they have 
storage agreements.  
5 - In the cases provided for in paragraph a) of paragraph 5 of article 3, the intermediary 
providers of network services must adopt the measures referred to in paragraph 2, as soon as possible, after notific ation of the determination of IGAC.  
6 - No responsibility falls on the intermediary provider of network services for the 
measures adopted in compliance with an IGAC determination. 
Article 6  
Duration of measures  
1 - The measures adopted in compliance with t he determination of the IGAC that imply 
the removal or impediment of access to illicitly made available content are in force:  
a) In the cases provided for in paragraph a) of paragraph 5 of article 3, until the cessation 
of the illicit activity that gave rise to them, but never for a period exceeding 48 hours;  
b) In other cases, for a maximum period of one year, unless, during this period, whoever has a legal interest in maintaining that content online demonstrates that he has put an end 
to the unlawful conduct;  
c) In any case, until the cessation of the effects of the decision is determined by the IGAC itself, or by any competent judicial or judicial authority, without prejudice to such authority being able to order other measures to prevent access.  
2 - The provisions of subparagraphs b) and c) of the previous number do not affect the 
possibility of any interested party to request, before the expiry of the period provided for therein, the extension of the effects of the decision, for an equal period, and for this purpose must demonstrate that they continue to be made available. unlawfully contents protected by copyright or related rights on the website or Internet service in question. 
Article 7  
Codes of conduct and self -regulation  
IGAC is responsible for encouraging and encouraging the creation of codes of conduct 
and self -regulation agreements between intermediary Internet service providers, bodies 
representing copyright and related rights holders and other interested parties, with a view to streamlining the p rocedures provided for in present law. 
CHAPTER III  
Judicial appeal  Article 8  
Appeal from court decision 
1 - Decisions handed down by the IGAC may be appealed to the Intellectual Property 
Court. 
2 - Decisions handed down by the Intellectual Property Court m ay be appealed to the 
Court of Appeal.  
Article 9  
Legitimacy  
1 - Anyone who is directly and effectively harmed by the decision is a legitimate party to 
appeal the decisions of the IGAC.  
2 - The opposing parties are:  
a) In the appeal against decisions that d etermine the removal or impediment of access to 
protected content, the holders of copyright or related rights, or the entities that represent 
them, who have filed a complaint under the terms of article 4;  
b) In appeals against decisions rejecting the application of the measures, those allegedly responsible for making the content in question available, namely the persons or entities 
that operate or own the websites or Internet services, pages or blogs or the IP owners through which it was the alleged of fense has been committed.  
3 - On an ancillary basis, anyone who, having not appealed the decision, demonstrates an 
interest in maintaining the IGAC's decisions may also intervene in the process. 
4 - The provisions of the previous numbers do not affect the use, by interested parties, of 
the administrative or judicial means to which they intend to resort for the effective 
exercise of the rights they invoke. 
Article 10  
Term  
The appeal must be lodged within 30 days from the notification of the decision to remove 
or prevent access to protected content or its rejection. 
CHAPTER IV  
Unlawful misdemeanour  
Article 11  
Infractions  paragraphs 1, 2, 4 and 5 of article 5 constitutes an administrative offense punishable with 
a fine of (euro) 5000 to (euro) 100 000.  
2 - IGAC is responsible for instructing administrative offense proceedings relating to the 
infractions provided for in the previous number and the application of fines.  
iii of this law not applying to the decisions provided for in this article .  
CHAPTER V 
Final dispositions  
Article 12  
Subsidiary right  
The Code of Civil Procedure is subsidiary applicable to everything that is not expressly 
regulated in chapter iii of this law.  
Article 13  
Implementation  
This law enters into force 60 days after its publication. 
Approved on October 22, 2021. 
The President of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues. 
Enacted on November 23, 2021. Published this.  
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Countersigned on November 25, 2021.  
The Prime Minister , António Luís Santos da Costa.