Ombudsman clarifies about bank fees
The Ombudsman received a complaint from DECO, in which this association asked her to complain to the legislator about the elimination of the temporal application norm of Law no. 57/2020, through which the legislator limited the prohibition of certain bank commissions to new contracts.
The Ombudsman responded negatively to DECO, in the terms of the letter that can be read here [in Portuguese only].
In this letter, it is emphasized that the norm in question does not offend any constitutional precept, since the Constitution does not impose, in matters such as this, an obligation of retroactivity or retrospectivity. It also stresses that the legislator’s choice to apply the new regulation only to new contracts is the result of weighing up the different interests at stake, within the framework of its political freedom of action.