Consumer rights · Romanian Ordinance 140/2021 · text checked on 7 November 2026
What can you ask for when a product breaks under guarantee in Romania?
Romanian law does not start with your money back. It first opens the choice between repair and replacement, free of charge, inside a period that cannot pass 15 calendar days, while price reduction and termination appear when that step refuses, fails or runs late. Choose the situation and your dates appear on the line, with a model message at the end.
The next step and a model message
Example: delivered in March 2026, fault found now
You may choose repair or replacement, free of charge, within a written-agreed period of at most 15 calendar days from reporting the fault.
A fault found in the first year from delivery is presumed to have existed at delivery, until proof to the contrary. Model message: “Hello, I am reporting that the product delivered on 15 March 2026 shows a fault discovered now. Please repair or replace it free of charge within the period set by Ordinance 140/2021, and confirm the handover date in writing.”
The legal order: conformity first, then price or contract#
Article 11 of Romanian Ordinance 140/2021, the act that transposed the European sale-of-goods directive into Romanian law, puts the consumer before a choice of their own: repair or replacement of the good. The text stops the choice only where the requested option is impossible or brings disproportionate costs beside the other. Both happen “free of charge”, a phrase article 2 fills with the necessary postage, transport, labour and materials, without significant inconvenience and within a reasonable period that “cannot exceed 15 calendar days” from when the seller was informed of the fault, a period the two sides agree in writing.
| Step | What can be asked | Its condition |
|---|---|---|
| First | Repair or replacement, at the consumer’s choice, free of charge | At most 15 calendar days agreed in writing; impossibility or disproportionate costs move the choice to the other option |
| Second | A proportionate price reduction or termination of the contract | Where the seller refused the remedy, did not complete it, the fault exists “despite the seller’s efforts to remedy it”, the fault is serious enough, or the remedy clearly will not come in time |
| On termination | The money back against returning the product | The return happens at the seller’s expense; termination is closed where the lack of conformity is minor, which the seller must prove |
One detail in the same article concerns the start of the product’s life: for a lack of conformity discovered shortly after delivery, within 30 calendar days, the law expressly provides replacement. That is why the checker asks for dates rather than impressions of age.
Two years, one year and fifteen days: who proves what#
The general line is the seller’s liability: two years from delivery for a lack of conformity that existed at delivery and is discovered inside the interval. Inside it sits another line, the proof one: a fault discovered in the first year is presumed to have existed at delivery, “until proof to the contrary”, unless the presumption is incompatible with the nature of the goods or of the fault. After the first year, the argument about the fault’s age shifts its balance, and service or expert findings become the central pieces.
The short line belongs to the remedy: once the consumer has informed the seller, the reasonable period is agreed in writing and cannot pass 15 calendar days. That agreement is worth asking for when the product enters service, because the next step flows from it when the interval passes without a result. The email reporting the fault, with its date, is the document that starts the clock; the model message at the end of the checker is written for exactly that job.
For second-hand goods sold by a professional, the liability period may be shortened by the parties’ agreement, but not under one year from delivery. The shortening is not automatic: without an agreement, the two years remain the rule to read in the contract.
The general two-year term is not the only clock, though: art. 12(6) extends the art. 9 terms by the downtime of the good when the lack of conformity is remedied by repair, from the moment the seller was informed until the good is actually handed back in normal working condition, and art. 12(7) makes the terms run from the date of replacement for the replacing good. Art. 11(8) also says that after the art. 9(1) term has expired, consumers may claim repair or replacement of goods that cannot be used for their intended purpose because of hidden defects ("vicii ascunse") that appeared within the average duration of use, "under the conditions of the law". EU law adds, through Directive (EU) 2024/1799, a one-time 12-month extension of the seller’s liability after a repair; the consolidated text of Ordinance 140/2021 dated 23 November 2025 does not contain it, and on 7 November 2026 a Romanian transposition in force was not confirmed. The consolidated text can be checked on legislatie.just.ro.
When the shop delays, refuses, or repairs without result#
The law’s word for a failed repair counts no attempts. The text opens the second step when a lack of conformity is found “despite the seller’s efforts to remedy it”. A second identical breakdown after service is therefore discussed from its facts, with the service sheets on the table. The same step receives the refusal to bring the good into conformity, a remedy left unfinished past its term, a fault serious enough for immediate termination, and the situation where the seller declares, or the circumstances make clear, that the remedy will not come in time or without significant inconvenience.
On termination, the consumer returns the good at the seller’s expense. The defensive line open to the seller is the fault’s size: where the lack of conformity is minor, termination cannot be asked, and proving the minor character belongs to the seller. The proportionate price reduction remains, in that scenario, the option to discuss.
Refusals met along the way can go to the National Authority for Consumer Protection, Romania’s enforcement institution in the matter. The ordinance ladder stays a set of rules and judges no individual file; invoices, dated reports and service sheets are the pieces that make any complaint readable.
What the tree above does not cover#
The ordinance read here concerns the sale of goods from a professional to a consumer. Services, digital content sold separately and purchases between private persons follow other rules, some in neighbouring acts. Goods with continuously supplied digital elements carry, inside the same ordinance, special liability and proof provisions for the supply period, which this checker does not flatten into the simple two-year line.
The commercial guarantee in the certificate received at purchase runs in parallel with the legal conformity guarantee and may be longer or differently conditioned. It does not replace the ordinance rights, and the seller cannot send the consumer exclusively to the manufacturer for a liability the law places on the seller.
Frequently asked questions#
Faulty product under guarantee: can I ask for my money back at once?
Generally not first. The law first opens repair or replacement, at your choice and free of charge; the price reduction and termination, the road to money back, appear on refusal, failure, passing the at-most-15-calendar-day term, or a sufficiently serious fault.
The shop says sending it to service will cost me. Is that right?
For repair or replacement, the legal expression “free of charge” includes the necessary transport, postage, labour and material costs. A fee asked for those operations contradicts the text as read.
How many failed repairs must I accept?
The law fixes no number. Its test is a fault found “despite the seller’s efforts to remedy it”; a completed repair with the same fault still present already speaks that language, with the service sheets as evidence.
The fault appeared 14 months after purchase. Do I still have rights?
The general liability period is two years and the presumption that the fault existed at delivery covers the first year; at 14 months you are inside the two years, and evidence about the fault’s nature helps: service findings, expert views, maintenance history. If a fault appears after the two years, check whether it is a hidden defect (art. 11(8)) or whether an earlier repair extended the term (art. 12(6)).
The seller sends me to the manufacturer. Who is liable?
For the ordinance’s lack of conformity, the seller is liable to the consumer. The maker’s commercial guarantee is a parallel road you may use, not a transfer of the legal liability.
I bought a resealed product from the shop. What term do I have?
The rule remains two years, but the parties may agree a shorter period for second-hand goods, never under one year from delivery. Check what you signed or accepted at purchase.
Sources and how they were checked#
- Government Emergency Ordinance no. 140/2021 on the sale of goods (Romania’s transposition of the EU sale-of-goods directive), consolidated on the Legislative Portal; automated access failed on 7 November 2026 and the official text was read the same day through a separate check
- National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC), for complaints after a seller refuses
The articles, deadlines and remedy order were re-read on 7 November 2026 in the consolidated text of Romanian Ordinance 140/2021, through a separate quoted check, because the portal refused this session’s automated access; that reading status is recorded in the project sources file. This page explains rules and gives no legal advice for a particular file; refusals can be taken to Romania’s National Authority for Consumer Protection. Review recommended on any amendment to the ordinance and by May 2027 at the latest.