Comment: New legal provisions for Consumer Protection in Romania

Recently, new legal provisions concerning the consumer protection field have taken effect in Romania, and those owning commercial spaces will have to take them into account. All business operators have to display the telephone number called TELEFONUL CONSUMATORULUI – 0219551, the address and phone/facsimile numbers of the County Commissions for Consumer Protection from the territorial area in which the business operator resides, as well as the website of the National Authority for Consumer Protection (NACP)– Order and Articles details below. The NACP also introduced a new model of the booklet containing the Consumer Telephone and data specific to the county where the company operates. The booklet shall have to be displayed starting January 20th 2015. The booklet shall be displayed within the visual field of the consumer, in a visible place, near the cash register or near the working hours display, in the trading space. The booklet model can be downloaded from the NACP website or can be extracted from the Addendums of NACP Order no. 594/2014. NACP inspectors can apply civil fines for failure to comply with these obligations. Although the sanction is not expressly provided, it is considered that not displaying the booklet is an infringement of the consumer information obligation provided under art. 18 of Ordinance no. 21/1992 regarding consumer protection. The amount of the fine varies between RON 1,000 and RON 10,000. For those who run online shops have to display a visible link to the official website of the National Authority for Consumer Protection (www.anpc.gov.ro), named PROTECTIA CONSUMATORILOR – A.N.P.C. , on the first page of their own webpages ” – details below. Thus, taking into consideration that NACP inspectors can apply civil fines for the infringement of these obligations, it is recommended that the above-mentioned link be displayed on the main pages of online shops websites, as well as of any other websites presenting products and services dedicated to natural persons.

Thus, according to Order no. 594 from December 15th 2014 regarding the amending of Order no. 72/2010 issued by the President of the National Authority for Consumer Protection (NACP) regarding certain consumer information measures, art. 1 from Order no. 72/2010 shall be amended and have the following form: „Art. 1 (1) In order to correctly inform the consumers and offer them the possibility to become aware of information regarding the means by which they can make claims or complaints regarding products and/or services that are being provided for them, business operators are under the obligation to display the telephone number called TELEFONUL CONSUMATORULUI – 0219551, the address and phone/facsimile numbers of the County Commissions for Consumer Protection from the territorial area in which the business operator resides, as well as the website of the National Authority for Consumer Protection: www.anpc.gov.ro”. Regarding informing consumers of online shops, NACP order no. 72/2010 provides the following: „All business operators that manage sales websites, online orders websites, websites advertising products and/or services or touristic services, websites that commercialize package tours or plane tickets, as well as e-commerce (electronic commerce) websites are bind to display a visible link to the official website of the National Authority for Consumer Protection (www.anpc.gov.ro), named PROTECTIA CONSUMATORILOR – A.N.P.C. , on the first page of their own webpages ”.