‘E-mails case’: FC Porto must pay Benfica €605,000 in damages | OneFootball

The lengthy litigation known as the ‘email case’, which pitted Benfica against FC Porto, has definitively come to an end. In its semi-annual report and accounts, the blue and white SAD states that the Constitutional Court rejected the final appeal, consolidating the final compensation of €605,300.90, plus interest and legal costs, as had already been decided by the Supreme Court a year ago. Ruling no. 1178/2025 of December 18, 2025, became final on January 16, 2026, bringing an end to the case (no. 9452/18.1T8PRT) in which Benfica had initially claimed €17.7 million in damages resulting from the disclosure of private correspondence on Porto Canal. The document describes the evolution of the decisions: in the first instance, FC Porto and its administrators – including Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa and Francisco J. Marques – were ordered to pay around €1.9 million; the Court of Appeal reduced this amount to €1.6 million; and the Supreme Court of Justice later set the final amount at around €605 thousand. The Supreme Court also acquitted FC Porto of paying “non-pecuniary damages” (image/reputational damages) and revoked the “compulsory pecuniary sanction” of half a million euros imposed by the lower courts. Dissatisfied with the Supreme Court’s ruling, the parties appealed to the Constitutional Court for alleged unconstitutionality, but the court of last resort refused to consider the appeal, confirming the higher decision. In the document sent to the CMVM, the management of the portista SAD declares that, “with this final decision, which became final on 16.01.2026, this declaratory process is hereby closed,” and now the amounts due must be settled, whose effect on the group’s accounts will be residual compared to the rival’s initial multimillion-euro claim.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.