ASAE

Published 30 October 2026, 20:39

ASAE — Autoridade de Segurança Alimentar e Económica (food and economic safety authority)

The inspection body for shops, cafés and restaurants, hairdressers and beauty salons, gyms, dry cleaners, workshops, car dealers and garages, hotels and short-term lets, car parks, funeral directors and exam preparation courses. It also covers any sector that has no regulator of its own.

Where you come across it. A complaints-book entry about a café or a shop, out-of-date goods, refusal to give a receipt, a dispute with a dealer over a warranty repair.

ASAE punishes the offender but does not get your money back: for that, you go to an arbitration centre or a justice of the peace court.

Official website: asae.gov.pt

Guides

How to buy a car in Portugal Livro de Reclamações: how to complain in Portugal and what it achieves Volta: the deposit on bottles and cans, and how to get your 10 cents back