Lagging PT Verified 21 Oct 2026

Portugal

EU AI Act implementation, 2026

Portugal announced ANACOM as its AI Act market surveillance authority and single point of contact in September 2025 but, as of October 2026, has not published the national legal instrument that formally designates authorities and sets penalties; ANACOM has nonetheless begun issuing guidance and the January 2026 National AI Agenda schedules sandboxes.

Implementing law: No bill yet
Penalty regime (Art. 99): Not adopted
Regulatory sandbox: Planned
Readiness rank: 23 of 27score 30 / 100

Key findings

ANACOM is the de facto AI Act lead, but its designation rests on a ministerial announcement, not a published legal act; the Article 70 formal designation is still outstanding.
No national penalty regime under Article 99 exists; ANACOM cannot fine for AI Act breaches until the diploma is adopted.
Portugal did meet the Article 77 obligation, publishing a list of 14 fundamental-rights authorities (date of notification not confirmed).
The January 2026 National AI Agenda commits to an AI Act-aligned framework and regulatory sandboxes; neither had materialised by October 2026.
ANACOM is compensating with soft-law output (AI literacy guidance, Article 5 recommendations) while awaiting hard powers.

National authorities

Market surveillance

ANACOM - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações

Announced (19 September 2025) as market surveillance authority and single point of contact, coordinating other sectoral authorities; formal designation instrument not yet published

eco.sapo.pt (opens in new tab)

Market surveillance

Sectoral authorities expected to coordinate with ANACOM (CNPD, Banco de Portugal, ASF, CMVM)

Reported as retaining competence in their sectors (personal data, banking, insurance, securities) and to articulate with ANACOM; roles not yet fixed in a national diploma

pt.andersen.com (opens in new tab)

Notifying authority

Not designated or not confirmed as of 21 Oct 2026.

Single point of contact (Art. 70(2))

ANACOM (announced September 2025; formal designation pending)

Implementing law, penalties and sandbox

Implementing law No bill yet

National diploma designating AI Act competent authorities and setting penalties (foreseen under the National AI Agenda, RCM 2/2026) - not yet published

No public text located

Penalty regime Not adopted

No national penalty rules under Article 99 are in force; regulators rely on existing powers.

Regulatory sandbox Planned

The National AI Agenda and its 2026-2030 Action Plan (RCM 2/2026) list regulatory sandboxes among their initiatives (press summaries report an H2 2026 target, not confirmed from the resolution text), and ANACOM has publicly called for 'test environments'. No operational AI Act sandbox was found as of October 2026; the EU deadline is now 2 August 2027.

cms.law (opens in new tab)

National AI strategy

Agenda Nacional de Inteligência Artificial and Plano de Ação 2026-2030 (Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 2/2026)

2026

cms.law (opens in new tab)

Notable developments

Aug 2025

Portugal misses the 2 August 2025 designation deadline

Press reported that Portugal was among the many member states that failed to designate Article 70 authorities by the deadline; only a handful of states had complied.
eco.sapo.pt (opens in new tab)
Sep 2025

Government picks ANACOM as AI Act supervisor

At ANACOM's annual conference on 19 September 2025 the Secretary of State for Digitalisation announced that ANACOM would be market surveillance authority and single point of contact, a month after ANACOM was also chosen as Digital Services Coordinator; experts warned ANACOM would need more resources.
eco.sapo.pt (opens in new tab)
Jan 2026

National AI Agenda 2026-2030 approved

RCM 2/2026, published 8 January 2026 and in force from 9 January, approves the Agenda Nacional de IA (six principles, four pillars) and its 2026-2030 action plan, which includes consolidating a regulatory framework aligned with the AI Act and regulatory sandboxes. Figures of 32 initiatives / over EUR 400 million and H1/H2 2026 timings circulate in press summaries but were not confirmed from the CMS or Morais Leitao summaries.
cms.law (opens in new tab)
Apr 2026

DSA implementing law enacted - but not the AI Act one

Lei n.º 12-A/2026 of 15 April 2026 gave ANACOM its Digital Services Act powers through a parliamentary law, showing the legislative route Portugal is likely to use for the AI Act; no equivalent AI Act bill was found in the Assembleia da República.
pwc.pt (opens in new tab)
May 2026

ANACOM consults on AI literacy guidance and Article 5 recommendations

ANACOM published draft organisational guidelines on AI literacy (Art. 4) on 4 May 2026 with consultation to 1 June 2026, and in June 2026 consulted on recommendations for implementing the Article 5 prohibitions, expressly building on the Commission's guidelines.
legal500.com (opens in new tab)

Analysis

Portugal's AI Act implementation has been a story of announcements outrunning legislation. After missing the 2 August 2025 deadline, the government used ANACOM's own conference on 19 September 2025 to name the telecoms regulator as market surveillance authority and single point of contact, mirroring the choice made a month earlier for the Digital Services Act. Sectoral authorities - the CNPD, Banco de Portugal, ASF and CMVM - are expected to keep competence in their fields and coordinate with ANACOM, but the division of labour, the notifying authority and the penalty regime all depend on a diploma that had not appeared in the Diário da República by October 2026.

The contrast with the DSA is telling. For the DSA Portugal passed a full parliamentary law (Lei n.º 12-A/2026, April 2026) designating ANACOM; for the AI Act the National AI Agenda adopted by RCM 2/2026 promised an aligned national framework and regulatory sandboxes, yet neither materialised. Portugal therefore belongs to the group where the AI Act applies directly (prohibitions since February 2025, transparency since August 2026) but where no national authority can lawfully impose Article 99 fines.

ANACOM has tried to fill the gap with guidance: draft AI literacy guidelines in May 2026 and recommendations on prohibited practices in June 2026, both framed as good practice rather than binding rules. Combined with the Agenda's funding commitments and the one-year reprieve on sandboxes and high-risk obligations under the Digital Omnibus on AI, Portugal has the pieces to catch up quickly once the designation law passes, but on the verification date it remains a lagging implementer.

PDF edition

EU AI Act 2026 Q3 Report

All 27 member-state profiles including Portugal, the readiness ranking, the Omnibus timeline and every source, as one print-ready PDF.

Sources

Last verified 21 Oct 2026 · 11 claims checked · 2 corrected · 3 unconfirmed

Confidence notes and what could not be confirmed

The claim that no designation/penalty diploma had been published by October 2026 comes from a vendor knowledge-base page (Opsio) and the Chambers 2026 guide; it was not possible to query the Diário da República directly, so a very recent publication cannot be excluded. The ANACOM Article 4 and Article 5 consultation dates come from secondary sources (Legal 500, Lexpoint, Opsio), not from an anacom.pt page. No notifying authority has been identified in any source. The Andersen page on the AI Agenda returned 404; the CMS summary and RCM 2/2026 citation were used instead. Fact-checked 2026-10-21: ANACOM announcement on 19 Sep 2025 by Secretary of State Bernardo Correia (eco.sapo.pt), RCM 2/2026 of 8 Jan 2026 (CMS, Morais Leitao), Legal 500 statement that no national AI Act statute exists and that ANACOM leads a network of 14 Art. 77 authorities, and the FLI tracker's 'notifying authority not identified' were confirmed. Agenda funding and timing figures could not be confirmed and were removed.

Corrected during fact-check

National AI Agenda: removed unverified 'measure IV.4/IV.5', '32 initiatives', 'over EUR 400 million' and 'H1 2026 framework' specifics; kept sandboxes as an untimed initiative
Article 77: softened 'November 2024' notification date (Legal 500 confirms 14 authorities, not the date)

Not independently confirmed

ANACOM AI literacy guidelines of 4 May 2026 (consultation to 1 Jun 2026) and the June 2026 timing of the Art. 5 recommendations (Legal 500 confirms the Art. 5 consultation but no month)
Whether a designation/penalty diploma was published in the Diario da Republica after the last secondary sources
eco.sapo.pt 25 Aug 2025 'missed deadline' article not re-fetched

Checked 21 Oct 2026 by fable-low.