Last month (April) the Portuguese Government, desperately trying to maximise tax revenue as far as we can see, brought in new laws governing free markets; i.e car boot sales, flea markets, farmer’s markets etc.

And, as you would expect, wading through this new legislation is like getting bogged down in quicksand.

At the moment it’s pretty difficult to assess exactly what will be required of organisations like Amovate when holding such gatherings.

At our meeting with the Camara (apparently we were the first organisation to seek clarification of the new laws here in Aljezur) the only thing that became clear is that the Camara and the Finanças, faced with a pretty exhaustive rule book to absorb, haven’t yet been able to come up with clear and concise advice to everyone involved.

We do know that Amovate will have a responsibility to seek an annual licence from the Camara Municipal to hold the Car Boots, giving dates, times, details of the types of goods to be sold, a plan of the area where the market is going to take place etc.

The area must be organized in different sectors, each plot must be identified and delineated, the rules must be clearly visible, comfort infrastructures must exist: toilets, water supply, electricity, and there must be enough car parking spaces in the surrounding area.

(Basically, the plots need to be marked and there must be a different sector for each different type of goods to be sold—books in one area, clothes in another, electrical goods in another and so on).

If there are places for:

• small farmers that are not fiscally registered who want to sell goods of their own production for subsistence purposes (the need for subsistence purposes must be verified and proven by the Junta de Freguesia)
• hawkers (people that sell here and there, “vendedores ambulantes”, in portuguese)
• other occasional sellers, namely craftsmen

Then these places must be separated from the rest.

That is all Amovate’s responsibility—anyone selling goods then has to make their own arrangements for licensing etc.

This is where the waters get murky and need much more clarification. It could be, for instance, that all traders must give a receipt for every item sold—even if you just sell a Jeffrey Archer paperback for 50 cents! This is the kind of thing we need to have confirmed or denied before any hard and fast decisions can be made.

One of our Portuguese committee members has studied the legislation and translated it and suggests: “From my reading, but a lawyer must confirm it, it seems possible to have people selling who are not registered in the Finanças, just as long as they are occasional sellers and/or small farmers selling their own products.”

Clearly, we cannot in all conscience, make any decisions just yet about the future of Amovate’s Car Boot sales, nor can we offer our car booters any meaningful advice, until we get clear and specific information about the legal implications for both ourselves and the stallholders.

For that reason we will be seeking a further meeting with the Camara Municipal, once they indicate to us that they are now in a position to give us a full picture of all that is required to stage such events.

The next Car Boot is due to go ahead as planned on Sunday June 2, and we will hand out all the information we have up to that date to all stallholders as they arrive.