Tribunal da Relação do Porto; 2024-11-07; 141/24.9T8AVR.P1
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:PT:TRP:2024:141.24.9T8AVR.P1.BB
Date: 2024-11-07
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Portugal

82024PT1107(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
I. The Portuguese legal system contains two parallel general regimes of international jurisdiction. The first is the domestic regime, set out in Articles 62 and 63 of the Código de Processo Civil (1). The second is the European Union regime, which arises from the reservation clause in Article 59 of the same Code.
II. The European Union regime takes precedence over the domestic one due to the primacy of European Union law, which is universally recognised as a source of law that is hierarchically superior.
III. To determine the jurisdiction, it is necessary to classify the contract in question in accordance with prevailing European Union law. This is a prerequisite for assessing whether the Portuguese courts have international jurisdiction, given that the dispute concerns a commercial matter arising from a transnational relationship.
IV. If the plaintiff’s claim is based on the termination of the contract due to non-performance and the dispute relates to a contract for the sale of goods and the provision of services (as in the present case), jurisdiction is determined in accordance with the criteria set out in the first and second indents of Article 7(1)(b) of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (2).
V. In this case, it must be held that the Portuguese courts lack the international jurisdiction to hear it. The action sought to enforce the obligation to reimburse the plaintiff for the advance payment, which corresponded to part of the price of the goods and services that the defendant agreed to supply under a subcontracting arrangement within the framework of a project initially awarded to the plaintiff through a public tender by the Spanish government. This project involved two locations, both of which were situated in Spain. The defendant’s domicile (registered office) and the relevant place of performance (the place of delivery of the goods and provision of the services) are both in Spain [see Article 4(1), Article 5(1) and first and second indents of Article 7(1)(b) of the Brussels I Regulation (recast)].
(1) Código de Processo Civil (Code of Civil Procedure).
(2) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (recast).