The courts forced Anatel to return 112 million euros in fees illegally charged over the last four years to telecommunications operators.
The National Communications Authority, Anacom, was obliged to return to telecommunications operators, by the last month of November, 112 million of euros in illegally charged fees, says the newspaper.
Among the amounts to be returned, the following stand out: 72 million euros that, in more than two dozen cases that have already become final, the courts have determined that unduly charged to NOS.
These cases date back to the period from 2020 to 2024, an official source from the regulator told the newspaper, and the amount to be returned can rise significantly following a ruling issued in October by the Constitutional Court.
The TC’s decision, which is based on the absence of a legal basis for the application of these fees, opens the door for the return of amounts paid by companies in the sector to the regulator for carrying out the activity of providing networks and services, notes the .
The ruling in question declared, with “general binding force”, that the regulatory fees charged by Anacom are unconstitutional, because they were fixed in a , and could force the regulator to return between R$170 and R$400 million to the operators.
The disputes lost by the telecommunications regulator, which had been defeated in court in several cases filed by operators against the payment of fees and the constitution of provisions, could still lead Anatel to return to the operators 5 million euros in interestsays .
The operators’ main complaint concerns the more than R$193 million that, by the end of 2023, Anatel had constituted in provisions to face the legal proceedings brought by companieswhich have been passed on to operators in the form of additional fees.
In the 2025 budget, Anacom foresees that the constitution of provisions may increase by 12.9 million euros, to 39.8 millioncontributing to an increase of 14.7 million in regulatory fees, says Eco.
On December 20, the government published a decree-law that regulates and legalizes the annual fee owed by operators to Anatel. The law will allow Anatel to charge the 2024 fee and those relating to future years.
