Expert-Grup

It Is Time to Bring Consumer Protection Out of Anonymity

Protecția consumatoruluiWednesday, 22 February 20237455 views

Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.

A policy note by the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” argues that consumer protection in the Republic of Moldova is neglected, fragmented and ineffective. Drawing on a thematic workshop held on 17 February, it identifies the main problems and proposes urgent policy solutions for the next one to two years.

The note finds that too many institutions have similar or overlapping powers, which confuses consumers and undermines trust. Moldova scores 2 on a scale of 1 to 5 for alignment with the EU acquis in this area. Coordination is slow and, at strategic level, merely formal. The State Inspectorate for Non-Food Products and Consumer Protection has only 35 staff out of 63 approved posts because pay is low.

Participants did not support merging all functions into one institution in the short term. They proposed a single consumer call centre, a digital tool to track petitions, transposition of three EU directives, uniform inspector training, a “Name and Shame” policy, separating market supervision from consumer protection, financial education and stronger NGOs. The authors note that in 2022 over 73% of state budget revenue came from consumption taxation, and recommend a broader mandate for the Inspectorate in the medium and long term.

View the original in Romanian