So far, there have been 13 court decisions in favour of supermarkets which challenged the government’s new food safety fee, created by the Ministry of Agriculture to fund 'food safety.'
The fee, based on the size of each supermarket, has been challenged by all the big supermarket chains.
The president of the Portuguese Association of Distribution Companies, Jorge Jordão, said that to date there have been 13 complaints filed by various of his members that have obtained favorable court decisions.
Jordão is optimistic that the fee is illegal and is nothing but another tax on his members’ businesses.
Jordão said "these demands are unfair and in truth they are camouflaged taxes in that it is a collective and unilateral provision and does not correspond to the concept that is associated with a 'fee'."
The food safety fee is paid by food retailers with outlets over a certain size and is to finance a suitably wooly ‘health fund’ which seems in fact to be being used to pay for the normal work of the Safety Authority for Health and Economic Activities, notoprious for disrupting trade and bullying retailers.
Pingo Doce has refused outright to pay the fees demanded, while most companies have paid up while at the same time challenging the legality of the payment demand in court.
This tax, like many others, ends up being paid by the consumers as supermarket prices rise to cover the additional operating cost.
