Consumer Rights When Shopping Online
Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.
More and more consumers in the Republic of Moldova buy online, through websites, apps, phone, e-mail or social media. An Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” note, produced for a national consumer information campaign, explains that such purchases are distance contracts and that the law gives consumers special protection.
An online purchase is an agreement concluded at a distance and has the same legal force as a paper contract. It is considered concluded when the consumer places an order, either by clicking the order button on a website or by replying to a commercial offer by e-mail, and it creates binding rights and obligations for both parties.
Under the Civil Code, a distance contract is concluded between a professional trader and a consumer without simultaneous physical presence, using exclusively means of distance communication. E-commerce covers the whole commercial process electronically, and documents such as invoices or notifications have legal value only if sent on a durable medium and compliant with electronic document rules. Every distance contract has three stages: pre-contractual, contractual and post-contractual. Even a simple click or an acceptance message such as “Yes, I want the product” can produce binding legal effects.
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