On 18 August 2017 the Portuguese legislature adopted the Law 83/2017 which provides for very specific amendments to the Industrial Property Code and the Criminal Code in the context of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism.

The incrimination of money laundering is foreseen in the Criminal Code: whoever converts, transfers, aids or facilitates any operation of conversion or transfer of advantages obtained by him or by a third party, directly or indirectly, in order to conceal its illicit origin, or to prevent the perpetrator or participant of such infringements from being criminally persecuted or subjected to a criminal offense, shall be punished with imprisonment from two to twelve years.

The new law rewrites the incrimination of money laundering (article 368-A of Criminal Code) to add the advantages or goods (e.g. money) resulting from the selling, putting in circulation or concealing counterfeited products. According to the Industrial Property Code “counterfeited products” are the products which criminally infringe certain industrial property right, namely trademarks, patents, utility models and designs.

Furthermore, Law 83/2017 increases the penalty for the crime of selling, putting in circulation or concealing counterfeited products from 12 months to 18 months.

Portugal followed the European Union recommendation that EU countries should take particular account of instruments of international bodies active in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, namely the FATF Recommendations (Financial Action Task Force, an independent inter-governmental body). The FATF Recommendations state that countries should apply the crime of money laundering to all serious offences, with a view to including the widest range of offences, among others, the counterfeiting and piracy of products.