Legal information
Updated 6 November 2026
Company details
Website owner
This website belongs to Elemento Afirmativo Unipessoal, Lda., a single-member private limited company (sociedade unipessoal por quotas), with its registered office at Avenida Vasco da Gama, 774, Espaço 08 (08B), 4430-247 Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, registered with the Conservatória do Registo Comercial (Commercial Registry Office) under the single registration and tax number 515745146, with a share capital of €50,000.00. It trades as Grupo Douro®.
Contact: geral@grupodouro.pt and +351 924 395 050 (call to a Portuguese mobile network).
The group's company and brands
Grupo Douro is the brand of Elemento Afirmativo Unipessoal, Lda. (tax number 515745146, share capital €50,000.00), which runs the brands DS Gaia Douro, Conteúdos., Desfadigar and DouroAuto and is preparing GrupoDouro Internacional.
Grupo Douro brings the brands together and does not provide services in its own name. Each service is provided under its brand by Elemento Afirmativo Unipessoal, Lda., as stated in the quote, contract or invoice. This website only presents the group: it does not sell goods or services.
Real estate brokerage, credit intermediation and insurance mediation are carried out only under the DS Gaia Douro brand (an agency of the Decisões e Soluções network), by Elemento Afirmativo Unipessoal, Lda.. For insurance, it acts under the network franchisor's registration. Registrations: AMI licence no. 18833 (IMPIC); Tied credit intermediary no. 0006605 (Banco de Portugal); Insurance: under Decisões e Soluções – Intermediários de Crédito, Lda., insurance agent no. 409311648/3 (ASF), life and non-life.
Each brand has its own website or profile, with its own information and terms.
Complaints and dispute resolution
You can file a complaint in the Electronic Complaints Book (opens in a new window).
For consumer disputes, you can turn to CICAP, the Porto Consumer Information and Arbitration Centre (opens in a new window), which covers Vila Nova de Gaia (Rua Damião de Góis, 31, Loja 6, 4050-225 Porto). The list of alternative dispute resolution bodies is available at www.consumidor.gov.pt (opens in a new window).
For credit intermediation, you can also complain to Banco de Portugal through its Bank Customer Portal (opens in a new window); for insurance, to the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority (ASF) (opens in a new window).
Terms
Purpose
This website presents Grupo Douro and its brands. The information published here is institutional and is not a contractual offer.
Services are provided by Elemento Afirmativo Unipessoal, Lda., under each brand (see Company details). The terms of each service are given directly by the brand responsible, and only that brand's quote or contract sets them.
Permitted use
You agree to use the website lawfully, without trying to access restricted areas or systems, interfering with its operation or using it for fraudulent purposes.
Virtual assistant
The virtual assistant (the website chat) is an artificial intelligence system, not a person. It answers automatically, to guide you and point you to the right brand, and it is intended for people aged 18 and over.
Its answers may contain mistakes. They are not offers, quotes or financial, legal or tax advice, and they do not bind Grupo Douro or its brands. The assistant does not compare, recommend or simulate credit or insurance products: for that, it refers you to the DS Gaia Douro team.
You may not use the chat for unlawful purposes, to try to get around its rules or to overload it with automated requests. We may limit or suspend the chat at any time.
You may not use the chat to insult or harass anyone (including the assistant), for sexual content, to ask for drugs or weapons, or for threats, terrorism, sexual content involving minors or incitement to hatred. The first offence gives a warning. The following ones block the chat for 15 minutes, 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days, depending on repetition; for requests about drugs or weapons, the first block is already 1 hour. The most serious offences (terrorism, threats of violence, minors, hatred) block the chat for 7 days without a warning. After 30 days without offences, the count starts again.
Intellectual property
The text, photographs, logos and graphic elements on this website belong to Grupo Douro or are used with permission. Grupo Douro® and «Há decisões que não têm preço»® are registered trade marks.
You may not reproduce this content for commercial purposes without prior written consent.
External links
This website links to the brands' own websites and profiles and to social networks. We are not responsible for the content or privacy policies of third-party websites.
Liability
We aim to keep the information accurate and up to date, but we may change it at any time without notice. We are not liable for decisions made solely on the basis of this website's content.
Security
If you find a vulnerability on this website, write to geral@grupodouro.pt and describe the steps to reproduce it. Please do not access other people's data or disrupt the website while you look into it.
The same contact is in security.txt, in the RFC 9116 format.
Governing law and versions
These terms are governed by Portuguese law. The courts of the Porto district have jurisdiction over disputes, without prejudice to mandatory rules that protect consumers.
This page is available in Portuguese and English. If the versions differ, the Portuguese version prevails. The date of the last update is shown at the top of the page.
Privacy
Data controller
Elemento Afirmativo Unipessoal, Lda. (Grupo Douro®), tax number 515745146, with its registered office at Avenida Vasco da Gama, 774, Espaço 08 (08B), 4430-247 Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, is the controller of the personal data processed on this website. For any question about personal data, write to geral@grupodouro.pt or to the registered office.
We have not appointed a data protection officer, because our activity does not require one (Article 37 GDPR). Requests about personal data go to the same email address.
What data we process
This website has no user accounts. We only measure visits if you consent in the cookie notice.
We process the data you send us through the form, by email or by phone; the messages you write in the virtual assistant, only to generate the answer; and technical data about each visit, such as your IP address, which the server uses for the website to work and to protect itself from abuse. We do not store your IP address: for the chat limits and moderation we only keep an encrypted fingerprint of it (see Virtual assistant).
The following sections explain, for each case, the purpose, the legal basis, who receives the data and how long we keep it.
Contact form
We use the data in the form (name, email or phone, subject and message) to answer your request and, where relevant, to prepare a proposal. The same applies to job applications, complaints and press enquiries.
The legal basis is taking steps at your request before entering into a contract, or our legitimate interest in replying to people who contact us (Article 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR). Your name, your message and one way to reach you are needed for us to reply: without them, we cannot deal with your request.
We keep requests for 1 year after the last contact and then delete them, unless the law requires us to keep them longer or they are needed to defend a right in ongoing proceedings. If you consent to marketing, that consent and the contact details it needs follow their own retention period (see Marketing communications).
The form is protected against automated submissions (spam) by Cloudflare Turnstile, which processes technical request data, such as your IP address and browser characteristics, to check that the form is being sent by a person. Cloudflare processes that data as a controller, under the Turnstile privacy addendum (opens in a new window). Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in protecting the website and the people who contact us (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Marketing communications
If you tick the marketing box in the form, Elemento Afirmativo Unipessoal, Lda. uses your name, email and phone number to send you news, campaigns and offers about Grupo Douro and its brands DS Gaia Douro, Conteúdos., Desfadigar, DouroAuto and GrupoDouro Internacional, by email, SMS or phone call.
The legal basis is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and Article 13-A of Portuguese Law 41/2004). The box is optional and unticked: if you leave it unticked, we reply to your request in exactly the same way.
To prove your consent, we keep the date and the exact wording of the box you accepted together with your request. This data is stored on our own systems, in the European Union, and we do not pass it on to other organisations for marketing purposes.
You can withdraw your consent at any time, free of charge, through the link or instructions included in each message, or by writing to geral@grupodouro.pt. Withdrawing it does not affect communications sent before then.
We keep your consent until you withdraw it. If 2 years pass without any interaction from you, we delete this data or ask for your consent again. If you withdraw it, we keep only your contact details on an opt-out list, so that we do not send you marketing again.
Visit analytics
If you accept analytics cookies, we measure visits, page views, clicks and chat usage, to understand how the website is used and improve it. We never record what you write in the form or in the chat.
The legal basis is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time in Cookie settings, in the footer, without affecting processing carried out before.
This data is processed by PostHog on our behalf, as a processor, on servers in the European Union, and kept for 1 year at most.
Virtual assistant (artificial intelligence)
The website chat is an artificial intelligence virtual assistant, not a person, and it is intended for people aged 18 and over. Its answers are generated automatically by Google's Gemini model from the information published on this website, and they may contain mistakes. For prices, terms or decisions, please talk to the brand's team directly.
Messages are used only to answer your questions and to point you to the right brand. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in helping visitors to the website and, when you ask about a service, taking steps at your request before entering into a contract (Article 6(1)(f) and (b) GDPR). We do not use conversations to build profiles.
Messages are sent to Google (Gemini API, paid service), which processes them on our behalf, as a processor, under its data processing terms. Google does not use the messages to train or improve its products and only logs them for a limited period, to detect abuse and meet legal obligations. Google's servers may be located outside the European Union (see Recipients and transfers).
The website does not store what you write or the answers: the conversation exists only in your browser while the page is open and disappears when you close or reload it. If you accept analytics cookies, we only record how the chat is used: whether the chat invitation was shown or dismissed, whether the chat was opened, how many questions were asked, whether the suggested questions were used, how long the answers took and which links in the answers were opened. We never record what you write or what the assistant answers.
Please do not write sensitive personal data in the chat, such as health data, financial data, identity document numbers or passwords. To deal with your case, use the contact form, phone or email.
To prevent abuse, the model itself checks every message. An abusive message is not answered: the first time we show a warning and, from then on, the chat is blocked for a period that grows with each repetition. We store whether there was a warning, the level and when the block ends in a cookie in your browser and, linked to the encrypted fingerprint of your IP address (see below), on the server; never the content of your messages. The stricter of the two records always applies, so that the block cannot be lifted by deleting the cookie or switching networks. The block is automatic and has no legal effect; if you think you were blocked by mistake, write to geral@grupodouro.pt and a person will review it. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in protecting the service and the people who use it (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
So that the chat is not overused, we limit the number of messages per person and for the website. To do so we count the messages sent from each IP address, without storing the IP: we only keep an encrypted fingerprint of it, which does not reveal the address without a secret key held only on the server. The counters are deleted after 36 hours. If a message is abusive, we keep with the fingerprint the same as in the moderation cookie (whether there was a warning, the level and when the block ends) until 30 days after the end of the last block or the last offence, so that deleting the cookie neither lifts the block nor clears the warning. This data is kept in a cache service (Upstash) acting on our behalf, as a processor, on servers in the European Union. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in protecting the service and its costs (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Before the first message, the chat confirms that it is being used by a person with Cloudflare Turnstile, on the same terms as the contact form. The confirmation is kept only in the open page and is lost when you reload or close it. The legal basis is the same legitimate interest in protecting the service (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Hosting and security
The website is hosted by Vercel, which acts on our behalf as a processor and may log technical data about requests to the server, such as the IP address, browser and page visited, for security reasons and for a limited period. Server-side processing, such as the chat's, runs on servers in the European Union.
We apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, alteration or disclosure, and we require the same of providers acting on our behalf.
Recipients and transfers
We do not sell personal data. We only share it with providers acting on our behalf, as processors, under a contract and with appropriate safeguards.
Those providers are Vercel (website hosting), Google (Gemini API, chat answers), Upstash (cache, in the European Union) and PostHog (visit analytics, in the European Union and only with your consent). Form messages are kept on our own systems, in the European Union.
Cloudflare (the anti-spam check of the form and the chat) and Google (the Google Maps map, only with your consent) process data as controllers, under their own policies.
Some of these providers are in the United States or may process data outside the European Union. In that case, the transfer relies on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for certified companies, or on the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission. You can ask for more information about these safeguards at geral@grupodouro.pt.
Your rights
You can request access to, rectification, erasure, restriction or portability of your data and withdraw any consent you have given, by writing to geral@grupodouro.pt.
You also have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing based on our legitimate interest.
We reply within one month, which may be extended in the cases provided for by law.
You can lodge a complaint with the Portuguese data protection authority, Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD): Av. D. Carlos I, 134, 1.º, 1200-651 Lisbon, geral@cnpd.pt, www.cnpd.pt (opens in a new window).
Changes
We may update this policy when the website or the law changes. The date of the last update is shown at the top of this page.