‘Email 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 ended. In its semi-annual report and accounts, the blue and white SAD informs that the Constitutional Court rejected the last appeal, consolidating the final compensation of 605,300.90 euros, plus interest and legal costs, as already decided by the Supreme Court a year ago. The ruling no. 1178/2025 of December 18, 2025, became final on January 16, 2026, putting an end to the process (no. 9452/18.1T8PRT) in which Benfica initially claimed 17.7 million euros for 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 about 1.9 million euros; the Court of Appeal reduced this amount to 1.6 million; and the Supreme Court subsequently set the final amount at around 605 thousand euros. The Supreme Court also acquitted FC Porto from paying "non-pecuniary damages" (image/reputational damages) and revoked the "compulsory monetary 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 superior decision. In the document sent to the CMVM, the administration of the SAD from Porto states that, "with this last decision, which became final on 16.01.2026, this declarative process is closed," now remaining to proceed with the settlement of the amounts due, whose effect on the group's accounts will be residual compared to the initial multimillion-dollar claim of the rival.

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