Consumers demand justice: 1,900 petitions in nine months
The number of consumer rights complaints is rising in the Republic of Moldova. In the first nine months of the year, the State Inspectorate for Non-Food Product Surveillance and Consumer Protection recorded over 1,900 petitions, compared to 1,651 during the entire year of 2025.
Most citizen complaints concern substandard services and non-compliant non-food products. During the first six months of the year, 572 complaints about substandard services and 428 about non-compliant non-food products were recorded, said Tatiana Frunză, a department head at the State Inspectorate for Non-Food Product Surveillance and Consumer Protection, during the "Spațiul Public" program on Radio Moldova. She noted that over 500,000 lei was refunded to consumers in the first half of the year after the cases were resolved. Tatiana Frunză urges citizens to report issues not only when the financial loss is significant but also when they observe practices that could affect a larger number of consumers.
"We have over 1,900 petitions, compared to 1,651 in 2025; so, effectively, the number of petitions has been matched—or even doubled, one might say—in just nine months. However, we often compare this figure to the number of calls, which exceeds 7,000 annually; if all 7,000 callers filed petitions, we could conclude the business is not at all consumer-friendly. These 7,000 consumers contact the business again, and we calmly explain the step-by-step process they need to follow. In practice, then, 5,000 businesses attempt to resolve the issue directly with the consumer at the point of sale," explains Tatiana Frunză.
Our country has made progress in transposing European legislation, noted Mihaela Pascal, Executive Director of the European Consumer Centre in the Republic of Moldova.
This progress includes implementing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and the entry into force, this past May, of the law on the representation of consumers' collective interests.
However, the functionality of these mechanisms remains an issue that needs to be addressed. Entities for alternative dispute resolution are set to be established in the Republic of Moldova, enabling consumers to resolve more disputes without resorting to litigation, Pascal added. "This is essentially the mechanism being transposed into legislation, though such entities still need to be established in the Republic of Moldova. The European Union encourages out-of-court dispute resolution—that is, resolving disputes outside official authorities and courts. If we, or the state, prioritize out-of-court dispute resolution through this mechanism, fewer disputes will reach the authorities. Consequently, authorities will not need to intervene as heavily in the relationship between merchants and consumers, allowing them the time and resources to focus on systemic violations or those affecting a larger number of consumers," notes Mihaela Pascal.
To ensure that complaints are analyzed more quickly and reach the specialized institution directly, a new tool has been launched: the "Consumer Protection" module on the e-Democracy platform. According to Andrei Prisacar, Deputy Director of the e-Governance Agency, the tool is currently in its pilot phase. Authorities aim to complete testing and prepare for the platform's wider rollout by the end of October. "Indeed, a person might not know exactly which authority to submit a petition to. However, the platform will guide users to clarify the nature of their issue—whether it concerns aviation, energy consumption, or general consumer affairs—and direct them accordingly. Even if the user does not follow the precise steps to reach the responsible authority, the platform includes a mechanism to reroute the petition to the correct destination without inconveniencing the citizen," notes Andrei Prisacar.
We remind you that the testing phase for the new "Consumer Protection" module was launched in August on the eDemocrație (e-Democracy) government platform by the e-Governance Agency and Expert-Grup, in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization. The need for this platform arose from the broader digitalization process as well as the difficulty consumers face in identifying the appropriate institution to contact, given that there are 12 authorities in the Republic of Moldova with consumer protection responsibilities.
