Portugal

Prostitution itself ceased to be a crime in Portugal with the 1982 Penal Code reform; the 1995/1998 revisions reaffirmed that selling and buying sex between consenting adults are not criminalised. Third-party involvement is governed by Código Penal Art. 169 (lenocínio) — six months to five years for anyone who "professionally or with profit intent, promotes, favours or facilitates the exercise of prostitution by another person" — and Art. 175 (lenocínio de menores) for minors-involving forms. The constitutionality of Art. 169(1) has been litigated repeatedly: Acórdão 144/2004 was the leading case upholding the provision on dignity grounds, followed by a long line of confirmations. The line was interrupted by Acórdão 134/2020 (declared unconstitutional) but Plenário Acórdão 72/2021 revoked it; Acórdão 218/2023 again declared it unconstitutional in a single case. The Plenary settled the matter most recently in Acórdão 881/2024, again upholding Art. 169(1) as constitutional, and Acórdão 143/2025 followed that line. None of these rulings have força obrigatória geral, so Art. 169 remains in force.

Lisbon street work concentrates in Conde Redondo and Intendente, with Brazilian travestis particularly visible in Conde Redondo; Porto's main area is around Rua Cândido dos Reis and the riverside; the Algarve sees seasonal indoor work tied to tourism. Migrant workers — Brazilian (the largest group, language-driven), Romanian, Bulgarian, and West African — make up the majority of street and apartment workers in major cities. Police enforcement focuses on trafficking (Art. 160) and lenocínio raids on apartment buildings and "casas de alterne", not on workers themselves. The PJ (Polícia Judiciária) periodically dismantles apartment operations, which typically catches managers and landlords rather than workers. No sex worker trade union exists, though APDES and the Rede sobre Trabalho Sexual (founded 2011) coordinate advocacy.

Portugal is a GDPR jurisdiction and the CNPD (Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados) is the supervisory authority. Hosting or operating a paid-listing platform from Portugal carries lenocínio exposure if it can be characterised as "facilitating" prostitution for profit, which is why the major platforms used by workers in Portugal are foreign-hosted.

EU/EEA/Swiss citizens have full freedom of movement and can register residency and open tax activity without immigration friction. Brazilian nationals — the largest migrant cohort in sex work — benefit from the CPLP (Lusophone) mobility agreement and the 2022 Acordo de Mobilidade CPLP. Tax registration as a trabalhador independente in a generic "outros prestadores de serviços" category is technically possible but the AT provides no official code or guidance, so most workers operate undeclared.

Slixa (international, foreign-hosted), Tryst.link, and Eros are commonly used. Local Portuguese-language directories tend to come and go under lenocínio pressure; foreign-hosted platforms dominate the durable advertising market.

• APDES — Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento (Porto G outreach)
• Rede sobre Trabalho Sexual (RTS) — national sex work network
• Médicos do Mundo Portugal — Porto Escondido programme