Entering Portugal through distributors: Portal BASE, health framework agreements and a first e-mail checked against the opt-out list

Portugal is a compact market with an unusually transparent public sector. Almost every public contract, down to the smallest direct award, ends up in one national portal with the supplier's name on it, and in health a single central buyer runs the framework agreements that hospitals order from. A manufacturer that reads that record, arrives with Portuguese documents and makes its first contact the lawful way can find its distributor quickly.

Putting it simply: Portuguese public buyers must publish their contracts on Portal BASE, the public contracts portal run by IMPIC, and the contract is not payable until it is published. Small purchases go by direct award (under €75,000) or prior consultation (under €130,000) for procedures started after 1 October 2026; larger ones by public tender, and above the EU thresholds also on TED. In health, SPMS runs framework agreements for the National Health Service; across government, eSPap runs them for everyday categories. Bids are in Portuguese and submitted electronically, public buyers pay in 30 days as a rule (60 at most), and e-invoicing to public buyers becomes compulsory for small and medium-sized suppliers on 1 January 2027. Marketing e-mail to a company is lawful, but only after you check the national opt-out list.

How the market buys

Distributors with national reach, and the islands

In most technical and professional categories a foreign manufacturer sells to a Portuguese distributor that holds stock, registers where the sector requires it, bids for public contracts and delivers across the mainland. Many also cover the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, which have their own logistics; ask early whether yours does.

Trade associations are the quickest index of who is active. In medical technology, APORMED describes itself as the national association with "a maior representatividade dos interesses comuns das empresas que integram o setor de produção e distribuição de dispositivos médicos", founded on 8 January 1990. Its member list is a useful first filter before you look at who actually wins contracts.

Public buyers in two layers

Portugal's public demand comes in two layers. The first is the many direct awards and prior consultations placed by hospitals, municipalities, universities and school groups. The second is centralised: framework agreements from which public bodies order.

• eSPap (Entidade de Serviços Partilhados da Administração Pública) runs the National Public Procurement System (SNCP). Direct State administration services and public institutes are bound to it; autonomous administration bodies and public enterprises may join voluntarily through a free accession contract. Its list of framework agreements in force shows each agreement's notices, documents and the suppliers holding contracts. Goods examples include furniture (in force since 26 January 2026) and copy paper (since 21 October 2026).
• SPMS (Serviços Partilhados do Ministério da Saúde, E.P.E.) does the same for health. It announces its framework agreement tenders in the Diário da República and, above the EU thresholds, in the Official Journal of the EU; a March 2025 notice for surgical sutures, for example, set up a multi-supplier agreement with a reopening of competition. Since a 2015 amendment, every call-off under the agreements, dynamic purchasing systems and other instruments in the SPMS catalogue must run on the SPMS electronic procurement platform, which is free for buyers and suppliers.

For a manufacturer, the framework holders in your category are the first companies to look at: they already hold the commercial relationship with the buyers.

The proof Portuguese buyers expect

Documents in Portuguese, submitted electronically

Article 58.º of the Public Contracts Code (Código dos Contratos Públicos, CCP) states that the documents making up a bid are "obrigatoriamente redigidos em língua portuguesa". The procedure rules may admit some technical documents in a foreign language, and the documents listed in article 57.º(3) may be in a foreign language unless the rules say otherwise. Bids are submitted directly on the electronic platform the buyer uses (article 62.º), so your distributor needs technical sheets, declarations of conformity and test reports as files it can upload.

Medical devices: INFARMED and Portuguese labelling

Health is Portugal's most visible public category, and it has its own rules under Decreto-Lei n.º 29/2024, which executes the Medical Devices Regulation (EU) 2017/745:

• Supplying, holding, storing or delivering devices intended for resale or for use in medical services, health units, pharmacies and other points of sale to the public (excluding supply to the public itself) depends on notification to INFARMED, the national authority (article 26.º).
• A distributor must have a technical manager and suitable premises and equipment for storage and distribution (article 27.º).
• Labelling, instructions for use, promotional material, the implant card and other information provided by the manufacturer must be in Portuguese, other languages may be added, unless INFARMED grants an exemption for specific groups of devices or users (article 40.º(3)).

If your product is a device, a distributor will ask for the Portuguese instructions and labels before anything else.

Identification

Portuguese notices and contract records identify organisations by their tax number (NIPC for legal persons). When a distributor gives you its number, you can match it against the contracts it has won.

Where public demand is visible

Portal BASE, by law and in open data

Article 465.º of the CCP makes it compulsory to publish information on the formation and execution of public contracts on the public contracts portal. Article 127.º goes further for small purchases: any contract concluded after a prior consultation or a direct award must be published there, and that publication is a "condição de eficácia" of the contract for the purposes of any payment, whether or not it was put in writing. A buyer that wants to pay its supplier must therefore publish the contract.

The portal is Portal BASE. IMPIC (Instituto dos Mercados Públicos, do Imobiliário e da Construção) publishes its contracts as open data on dados.gov.pt, covering 2012 to 2026, last updated on 1 November 2026 and licensed as public domain. Contracting entities register them directly or through the electronic platforms.

Procedures and thresholds

Under article 20.º of the CCP, as it now reads, a buyer of goods or services may use:

• a direct award (ajuste direto) when the estimated contract value is below €75,000;
• a prior consultation (consulta prévia) below €130,000;
• a public tender or restricted procedure without an EU notice below the EU thresholds, or with an EU notice at any value.

The €75,000 and €130,000 values come from Decreto-Lei n.º 177/2026 of 4 September 2026 and apply to procedures started after 1 October 2026; older procedures ran under the previous, lower values. The EU thresholds for supplies and services in 2026 and 2027 are €140,000 for central government and €216,000 for other contracting authorities (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152); above them the award notice also goes to TED. The consolidated text of article 474.º still shows the earlier €139,000 value for supply and service contracts awarded by the State, but the delegated regulation applies directly.

For a manufacturer this means the trail is complete in both directions: TED for the larger awards, BASE for everything, including the small direct awards where a distributor first wins a hospital or municipality (how to read a TED contract award notice). In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (September 2026), 96% of the winners in notices from Portuguese buyers were companies registered in Portugal (methodology).

Payment terms and invoicing

Payment

Between companies, Decreto-Lei n.º 62/2013 sets a default of 30 days from receipt of the invoice (or of the goods, where the invoice date is uncertain) when the contract sets no date, and a contractual term "não pode exceder 60 dias" unless the contract expressly provides otherwise and the clause is not void as grossly unfair (article 4.º). Where a public entity owes the payment, it may not exceed the 30-day defaults; recognised public health providers may go to 60 days, and a longer term must be expressly justified by the contract's nature and "não podendo exceder, em caso algum, 60 dias" (article 5.º). The CCP sets the same 30-day default for public contracts and a 60-day ceiling for agreed terms (article 299.º).

E-invoicing to public buyers

Article 299.º-B of the CCP obliges suppliers under public contracts to issue electronic invoices following the European standard. eSPap, which runs the FE-AP e-invoicing solution for public administration, states the timetable in its FAQ:

• large companies have been obliged since 1 January 2021;
• small, medium-sized and micro enterprises (as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC) from 1 January 2027;
• until 31 December 2026, PDF invoices are accepted and treated as electronic invoices for tax purposes (article 95.º(3) of the 2026 State Budget Law, Lei n.º 73-A/2025).

As of 3 November 2026 the 2027 State Budget was still before Parliament, and budget laws have moved these dates before; check the final text, and the eSPap FAQ, before you rely on the 2027 date.

Public bodies on FE-AP receive invoices in the national CIUS-PT format. Small suppliers that issue fewer than 250 documents a year can send them through eSPap's Microportal FE-AP, for which eSPap charges nothing until a fee is set by ministerial order. In practice your Portuguese distributor invoices the hospital; you invoice the distributor. Check its readiness if you plan to contract with public bodies directly, and confirm the invoicing and payment rules for your contracts with your tax adviser.

Lawful first contact

Portugal separates companies from individuals. Article 13.º-A(1) of Lei n.º 41/2004 requires prior, express consent for marketing e-mail to a subscriber who is a natural person, or to a user. Article 13.º-A(2) then says this does not apply to subscribers that are legal persons: unsolicited direct marketing is permitted "até que os assinantes recusem futuras comunicações e se inscrevam na lista" kept under article 13.º-B. That national list of companies that refuse direct marketing is kept by the Direção-Geral do Consumidor (DGC); senders "são obrigadas a consultar a lista, atualizada mensalmente pela DGC, que a disponibiliza a seu pedido" (article 13.º-B(5)). The e-mail must not hide the sender's identity and must give a valid address for opting out (article 13.º-A(4)).

That is why we describe Portugal as conditional. Request the DGC list, check the distributor before you send, write to its general or commercial address, identify yourself fully, include a simple way to stop further messages and act on a refusal at once. Treat a named employee's address with care: the consent rule covers users as well as individual subscribers. Write in Portuguese, or at least open in Portuguese. The Portugal market page sets out the rule and its sources. This is a summary, not legal advice; check your campaign with a Portuguese adviser.

Where Cresques fits

Create a market for Portugal, choose your CPV categories (or let the materials reader suggest them from a brochure or website), and Cresques shows the companies named in TED award notices for those categories, with personal details removed. For the smaller direct awards and prior consultations, search Portal BASE yourself. Company profiles with an AI-researched role and first messages drafted in Portuguese are live; e-mail alerts on new awards come with paid plans.

What this means for a manufacturer

• Read the public record first: TED for the larger awards, Portal BASE for every contract, small direct awards included.
• Check eSPap's and SPMS's framework agreements for your category; their holders already serve the buyers.
• If you make medical devices, confirm the distributor's INFARMED notification and prepare Portuguese labels and instructions.
• Prepare Portuguese bid documents as electronic files, ready for the buyer's platform.
• Keep payment terms within 60 days and expect 30 on public work; check e-invoicing readiness for 2027.
• E-mail the company only after checking the DGC opt-out list, with your identity and an opt-out in every message.