HUAWEI Technologies Co. has filed a lawsuit with a Lisbon court against a resolution by Portugal’s cybersecurity council CSSC that effectively bars operators from using its equipment in high-speed 5G mobile networks, the company said.

The CSSC is the prime minister’s consultative body and its resolution, although not naming Huawei directly, was seen as a blow to efforts by Huawei to enter standalone networks in the 5G market in Portugal, and extend existing contracts on 4G platforms on which the new technology is based.

“Huawei Portugal seeks protection of its legitimate interests and legal rights under the law as a company duly established in Portugal,” Huawei said.

The lawsuit was filed at the Lisbon Administrative Court on Aug. 31, Reuters quoted Portugal’s justice ministry’s portal Citius as saying yesterday.

Huawei said it hopes the court will “remedy the multiple violations” of its rights, and the “significant detrimental impact on the company and its partners” from the resolution.

Mario Campolargo, Portugal’s secretary of state for digitalization and also head of the CSSC, said earlier that the deliberation in May was based on an independent, strict security assessment following European Union guidelines, and did not specifically target Chinese suppliers.

Thierry Breton, EU commissioner for internal market, said June 15 that he wants more EU member states to remove “high-risk” suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE from their mobile internet infrastructure upgrades.

“The European Commission keeps alleging that Chinese telecom firms such as Huawei and ZTE pose a security risk, but has yet to provide any evidence,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said a day later.

In a statement June 17, Huawei said the European Commission’s call to recommend excluding its advanced wireless equipment in the EU market was based on “discriminatory judgments.” (SD-Agencies)