Portugal reached a historic arbitration record in 2025, with 16,524 cases filed, an increase of about 11% compared to the 14,842 in 2024, according to data from the Directorate-General for Justice Policy. The most frequent disputes involved insurance and complementary Social Security activities, transportation and communications, and electricity, gas, and water services. Lawyers interviewed by the publication consider this a structural trend, with a 43% increase between 2013 and 2023, explained by the increasingly facilitated access of consumers to consumer arbitration and the solid legal basis provided by the 2011 Voluntary Arbitration Act.
Although Portugal has 40 authorized arbitration centers covering areas such as Consumer, Commerce, Administrative, and Labor, the supply remains unevenly concentrated. In commercial arbitration, the overwhelming majority of cases are concentrated in a single center, the Lisbon Chamber of Commerce, and even ad hoc arbitration tends to be based in that city. Specialists warn that this concentration does not represent a consolidated alternative, but rather an alternative with a single significant
