Payments Prohibited from Being Charged to Consumers: When Fees Demanded by Traders Are Illegal
Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.
An explanatory note produced under the national consumer information campaign explains Article 880 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Moldova, the main legal basis prohibiting certain payments charged to consumers. It sets out which fees are expressly banned and gives concrete examples to help consumers claim their rights.
The rules respond to practices in telecoms, utilities, online commerce, transport and financial services, where hidden fees, preselected options, payment-method commissions or opaque administrative costs make consumers pay more than the real price. Article 880 requires traders to disclose any extra charge in advance and obtain explicit consent. It is almost identical to EU rules, notably Directive 2011/83/EU, Directive 2005/29/CE and Regulation 2015/751.
Professionals cannot impose payments not clearly communicated before the contract and not explicitly accepted, and contract clauses to the contrary are null, even if signed. Under paragraph (1), payment-method fees cannot exceed the professional’s real processing cost: if the processor charges 1%, the consumer cannot be charged 2% or 3%. Under paragraph (2), helplines for contract queries cannot cost more than the basic telephone rate, so premium numbers are banned.
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