Document from CIS Legislation database © 2003-2024 SojuzPravoInform LLC

LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

of March 13, 2003 No. 105-XV

About consumer protection

(as amended on 18-07-2024)

This law shifts:

– The directive 2005/29/EU of the European parliament and Council of May 11, 2005 about unfair commercial practicians of the companies in the domestic market in relation to consumers and about change of the Directive No. 84/450/EEC of Council, directives of the EU 97/7/EC, 98/27/EC and 2002/65/EC of the European parliament and Council and Regulations (EU) No. 2006/2004 of the European parliament and Council (The directive on unfair commercial practice), published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 149 of June 11, 2005, with the last changes made by the Directive (EU) of 2019/2161 European parliament and Council of November 27, 2019;

– The directive 2013/11/EU of the European parliament and EU Council of May 21, 2013 concerning the alternative dispute resolution in the field of consumption and about change of Regulations (EU) No. 2006/2004 and Directives 2009/22/EC (The directive on ARS in the field of consumption), published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 165 of June 18, 2013, with the last changes made by Regulations (EU) 2017/2394 European parliament and Council of December 12, 2017;

– The directive (EU) of 2019/771 European parliament and Council of May 20, 2019 about some aspects of purchase and sale agreements of property, about change of Regulations (EU) No. 2017/2394 and Directives 2009/22/EU and on cancellation of the Directive 1999/44/EU, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 136 of May 22, 2019;

– Regulations (EU) No. 2017/2394 of the European parliament and Council of December 12, 2017 about cooperation between the national authorities responsible for compliance with law about consumer protection, and about cancellation of Regulations (EU) No. 2006/2004, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 345 of December 27, 2017 with the last changes made by the Directive (EU) of 2019/771 European parliament and Council of May 20, 2019.

The parliament adopts this organic law.

Chapter I General provisions

Article 1. The used concepts

For the purpose of application of this law the concepts determined in the Law on informing consumers concerning foodstuff are used
No. 279/2017, the Law on activities for accreditation and assessment of conformity No. 235/2011 also in addition applies the following basic concepts:

safe product, service – product, service which do not pose hazard to life, health, heredity and property of consumers or the environment;

internal dispute – the contractual dispute following from the purchase and sale agreement or the service provision agreement in case the residence of the consumer at the time of the order of products or services and the location of the businessman are in the Republic of Moldova;

warranty period – the period of time established by this law or declared which is estimated from the date of delivery of product service and during which the seller, the supplier or the producer shall before the consumer, without collection of additional fare, compensate the paid cost, replace, repair or contain the acquired product, the provided service or to service them, anyway, if they do not correspond to the conditions stated in guarantee or in the corresponding promotional materials;

actions for check – the coordinated activities for check of the consumer markets within cross-border cooperation by carrying out the simultaneous coordinated actions for control for check of compliance with law on protection of consumer interests or identifications of its violations;

the declaration of conformity – the written confirmation based on the decision made after assessment by means of which the producer or his authorized representative with sufficient degree of confidence certifies that products conform to the established requirements;

the distributor – business entity of distribyyutorny chain, other than the producer or the importer who provides products in the market also provides transfer of the property right to it from the producer to the consumer;

the durable carrier – any tool providing for the consumer or seller opportunity to store information addressed personally to it by the method guaranteeing its availability in the future during the period answering information purpose and reproduction of the saved information in invariable type;

single bureau of communication – the national authority of the public power responsible for coordination of cooperation concerning cross-border violations in the field of consumer protection;

the claim – the written application confirmed by evidential documents according to which the businessman made or can make violation of the regulations protecting consumer interests;

required body – the competent authority which received request about mutual aid;

the requesting body – competent authority which makes request about rendering mutual aid;

the declared requirements – any public statements concerning the main product characteristics made by the seller, the producer or his authorized representative, in particular, by means of advertizing or etiketrovaniye;

hierarchy of the products provided to the consumer – visibility of products relatively each other in case of their representation, the organization or the message by the businessman irrespective of the technology means used for such representation, the organization or the message;

interoperability – capability of products to function together with hardware or program components, other than those which are usually used for products of the same type;

the contractor – any physical person or legal entity having permission to business activity which performs works in relations with consumers;

the contractor – any legal entity or physical person having permission to business activity who render services;

quality – set of product characteristics, the services relating to their capability to satisfy the expressed or estimated requirements according to appointment;

the code of behavior – the agreement or set of rules, not stipulated by the legislation or administrative orders to observe the businessmen determining behavior promising them in connection with one or several commercial practicians or in one or several sectors of activities;

collective consumer interests – interests of certain number of consumers which suffered or are subject to damage as a result of violation;

commercial guarantee – any obligation from the seller or the producer (further – the guarantor) before the consumer provided in the warranty certificate or the accompanying promotional materials available at the moment or to the conclusion of the agreement, supplementing legal obligations of the seller concerning provision of a guarantee for compliance, compensation of the paid cost of product or its replacement, repair or maintenance of product in any manner if it does not meet specifications or any other requirement which is not connected with compliance;

competent authority – any appointed body of the public power having certain powers for ensuring compliance with the regulations protecting consumer interests;

the businessman – any physical person or legal entity which in commercial practicians, being subject of this law, is effective within the business, industrial, productive or handicraft activity, and also any person who acts for commercial purposes on behalf or for benefit of any businessman;

commercial practicians (practicians of businessmen in relations with consumers) – any action, omission, behavior, the statement or the commercial message, including the advertizing and sale performed by the businessman in close connection with promotion, sale or delivery of goods to consumers;

the commercial decision – any decision on feasibility, method and conditions of acquisition of product, complete or partial form of its payment, preserving product or refusal of it or on accomplishment of contract law made by the consumer concerning product which can lead the consumer to action or abstention from it;

large-scale violation:

a) any action or failure to act contradicting the legislation on protection of consumer interests which put causes or can cause damage to collective consumer interests, living at least in two states other than the state in which there was this action or failure to act in the territory of which it is considered founded the businessman responsible for this action or failure to act in which there are proofs or the businessman's assets connected with the corresponding action or failure to act; or

b) any action or failure to act contradicting the legislation on protection of consumer interests which put causes or can cause damage to collective consumer interests, the having general characteristics, such as identical illegal practice, violation of the same interest, occurring at the same time and made by the same businessman at least in three states;

the shortcoming – defect of product, service which does them not corresponding to the requirements established in regulations or declared and which is shown and can be determined only during the using and/or storage of these goods, service;

unreasonable impact – use of line item of force in relation to the consumer in the form of rendering pressure upon it, even without using physical force or threat of its application, according to the procedure, significantly limiting capability of the consumer to make the conscious decision;

illegal condition – the term of the contract which, being individually not approved with the consumer, creates contrary to requirements of common sense in itself or together with other requirements of the agreement to the detriment of the consumer essential imbalance between the rights and obligations of the Parties following from the agreement;

inappropriate product, service – product, service which do not correspond to the requirements established in regulations or declared;

public association of consumers – public association which single purpose is protection of the rights and legitimate interests of consumers without extraction of benefit for the members;

the online interface – any software, including the website or part of the website, or the appendix managed by the businessman or from his name and serving for provision to consumers of access to products or services of the businessman;

the online market – the service using the software including the website or part of the website or the appendix managed by the businessman or from his name which provides to consumers opportunity to sign remote agreements with other businessmen or consumers;

dangerous product, service – product, service which cannot be determined as safe;

responsible for the code of behavior – any face, including the businessman or group of businessmen responsible for creation and review of the code of behavior and/or supervision of its observance by those who undertook to observe that;

open auction – method of sales in case of which products or services are offered by the businessman to the consumers who are participating or having opportunity personally to participate in auction, by means of the transparent procedure of the competitive auction held by the auctioneer, as a result of which the won offerer shall acquire products or services;

the consumer invitation – the commercial message by means of which characteristics and the price of product according to the procedure, corresponding to the means of commercial communications used for this purpose and which induces the consumer to purchase of this product are specified;

the consumer – any physical person having the intention to order or acquire or ordering acquiring or using products, services for the needs which are not connected with business, industrial, craft or professional activity;

legal guarantee of compliance – the legal protection of the consumer according to the law on discrepancy of product to requirements which is the obligation in law of the seller or producer before the consumer without any additional costs, on reduction of product in compliance, including return of the price paid by the consumer, replacement, repair or content of product;

provision in the market – delivery to the market of products for distribution, consumption or use in the course of business activity for a fee or free of charge;

the seller – any legal entity or physical person having permission to business activity which is effective, including through other person from his name or according to its order, for the purpose of, connected with business, industrial, craft or professional activity of the relevant legal or physical person in the relations with consumers;

product:

– the property intended for individual consumption or use;

– any personal material estate which includes digital content or digital service or is interconnected with them in such a way that in the absence of this digital content or digital service this property cannot perform the functions («products with digital elements»);

– the electric power, natural gas and water in case they are offered to sale in limited amount or in assigned amount.

Within commercial practice by product any property or service, including real estate, digital content and digital services, and also the related rights and obligations is recognized;

product of long-term use – technically the difficult product consisting of details and parts, designed and designed for use in the period of service life which can be subjected to repair or activities for maintenance. Are not products of long-term use of product which part the interconnected details which replacement allows to make repair and maintenance and which when using according to the destination – during depreciation term – can change the structure, color, form or structure that requires disproportionate efforts for recovery of their initial condition are not;

producer:

- business entity who makes end product, its component or raw materials;

- business entity who puts on product the name, trade or other distinctive mark;

- business entity who recovers product;

- business entity who changes product characteristics;

- the representative of business entity registered in the Republic of Moldova with the location outside the Republic of Moldova;

- business entity who imports products;

- the distributor or the seller of import product in case the importer is unknown;

- the distributor or the seller of product in case it is impossible to establish the importer if he in 30-day time after filing of application did not report to injured person about establishment of the importer;

professional skill – the level of specialized competence and judiciousness which the businessman can reasonably use in relation to consumers according to fair commercial practice and/or with the general principle of common sense in the field of the activities;

work – set of actions as a result of which the product turns out or its characteristics change;

repair – reduction of product in compliance with the purchase and sale agreement in case of discrepancy availability;

the latent defect – high-quality defect of product, service which, though existed at the time of delivery of product, rendering service was not known to the consumer and could not be found by it by regular methods of check;

compatibility – capability of products to function together with hardware or program components which are usually used with products of this type, needlessly in transformation of products or hardware or program components;

expiration date – capability of products to keep required functions and characteristics in case of regular use;

term validity/date of the minimum expiration date –
the period time/date, established by the producer (the business entity making product), for nonfood product, besides, for which fixed term of service during which, which the product shall keep initial specific characteristics on condition of observance of rules of transportation, manipulation, storage and use;

service life – the period of time established by the producer (business entity who makes product) during which products of long-term use shall keep functional characteristics on condition of observance of rules of transportation, manipulation, storage and use;

essential misstatement of economic approach of consumers – use of the commercial practice significantly influencing capability of consumers to make the conscious decision on case and predetermining thus adoption of the commercial decision which otherwise would be not made;

cross-border violation – any action or failure to act contradicting the legislation on protection of consumer interests which put causes or can cause damage to collective consumer interests, living in the state other than the state in which there was considered action or failure to act in the territory of which it is considered founded the businessman responsible for this action or failure to act or in which proofs or the businessman's assets connected with the corresponding action or failure to act are found;

cross-border dispute – the contractual dispute following from the purchase and sale agreement or the service provision agreement in case the residence of the consumer at the time of the order of products or services is in the state, other than in what it is considered founded the businessman;

service – activities, other, than that of which the product is result, performed for the purpose of requirements satisfaction of consumers;

damage – the material and/or moral harm done to the consumer as a result of destruction, damage or reduction of its property and also the harm done to his life, health and heredity as a result of the use and/or use of inappropriate products, services or owing to refusal or unreasonable tightening of the conclusion of the service provision agreement;

damage caused to collective consumer interests – the actual or potential damage caused to interests of certain number of consumers;

counterfeited (counterfeit) product – the product made of other components in other proportions or in other conditions, than those which are established in specifications, represented as authentic;

business entity – any legal entity or physical person having permission to business activity who make transport, implement products or their components, render services (perform works);

digital content – data which are made and delivered in digital format;

digital service:

– the service providing opportunity to create, process, store data in digital format for the consumer or to get access to them; or

– the service providing possibility of exchange in digital format with the data loaded or created by the consumer or other users of the corresponding service, or any other interaction with these data;

economic interest – set of the demands made by the consumer to the seller, the contractor for free remedial action, free replacement or return of cost inappropriate product, service and to compensation of the caused damage, and also other requirements connected with material consumer interest.

Article 2. Scope

(1) This law determines general requirements by consumer protection, providing necessary conditions for their unrestricted access to products and services, for complete informing on the main product characteristics and services, protection and providing the rights and legitimate interests of consumers in connection with unfair commercial practicians, and also for participation of consumers in the reasons and decision making interesting them as consumers.

(2) This law is applied to the unfair commercial practicians of businessmen determined by Article 13 to consumers to, in time and after the commercial transaction connected with product, service.

(3) This law regulates the aspects connected with the separate requirements relating to the purchase and sale agreements signed between the seller and the consumer, in particular regulations of compliance of products to the agreement, the adjusting measures in case of discrepancy, methods of application of the adequate adjusting measures, and also commercial guarantees.

For the purposes of this law also the agreement between the consumer and the seller on delivery of products which shall be made or made, including according to specifications of the consumer is considered the purchase and sale agreement.

(4) This law establishes the aspects concerning conditions under which the authorities responsible for application of regulations about protection of consumer interests, cooperate at the cross-border level to provide observance of these acts and smooth functioning of the domestic market and to improve protection of economic consumer interests.

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