An online store is ready not when it looks good, but when a customer can order, pay, receive the invoice and, if needed, return the product — and you can prove that you followed the rules. The list below brings together the checks to make before launching an online store in Romania, in the order a customer would encounter them.
This article is a practical checklist, not legal or tax advice. Legislation changes often: check the text in force at the official sources listed at the end and confirm with your company’s lawyer or accountant.
In short
- Company details visible on the website: name, tax ID (CUI), registration number, registered office, contact details.
- The legal pages: terms and conditions, delivery, right of withdrawal, privacy, cookies.
- The SAL pictogram from the Romanian consumer protection authority (ANPC), with a link to its complaints platform.
- The online withdrawal function, for withdrawing from contracts concluded on the website.
- Invoicing connected to RO e-Factura (the Romanian national e-invoicing system), including for customers who are individuals.
- Payment, emails and backups, tested before the first real order.
1. Company details
The Romanian e-commerce law (Law No. 365/2002) requires information about the merchant to be easy to find: the company name, registered office, contact details (including email), Trade Register number and tax ID. In practice, they go in the footer of every page and on the contact page.
2. The legal pages
- Terms and conditions of sale: how the contract is concluded, payment, delivery, warranties, complaints.
- Delivery: delivery times, costs, couriers, the areas you deliver to. The delivery cost must be clear before the customer places the order.
- Right of withdrawal: consumers generally have 14 days to withdraw from the contract without giving a reason, under Government Emergency Ordinance No. 34/2014 (OUG 34/2014). The page explains how to exercise the right, who pays for return shipping and how soon the money is refunded, plus the exceptions provided by law.
- Privacy Policy: what data you collect with an order, why, how long you keep it and who you share it with (courier, payment processor, invoicing software). For the roles under the GDPR, see EU servers and the GDPR.
- Cookie Policy and a banner with explicit consent: analytics and marketing cookies only start after “Accept”.
3. The online withdrawal function
Since 19 June 2026, merchants that conclude contracts on their website must offer an online withdrawal function: a visible button through which the consumer declares their withdrawal, a short form and a confirmation sent by email. The obligation comes from Directive (EU) 2023/2673 and has been transposed into OUG 34/2014. Check the exact text and the required wording before launch.
4. The ANPC SAL pictogram
Online stores in Romania display the Alternative Dispute Resolution (SAL) pictogram, with a link to the complaints platform of the Romanian consumer protection authority (ANPC), reclamatiisal.anpc.ro, according to the rules in ANPC Order No. 449/2022, as subsequently amended. The official file is downloaded from the ANPC page dedicated to SAL and placed locally on the website, usually in the footer.
A detail that many articles still get wrong: the European online dispute resolution platform (SOL/ODR) was closed on 20 July 2025, under Regulation (EU) 2024/3228, and its link only leads to the closure notice.
5. Prices and the cart
- the displayed price is the final price, with all taxes included;
- delivery costs and any other costs appear before the order is confirmed;
- the final order button clearly states that placing the order means an obligation to pay;
- the customer receives an order confirmation by email, with the products, the price and the merchant’s details.
6. Invoicing and RO e-Factura
Since 2025, invoices issued to individuals (B2C) as well are submitted to the RO e-Factura system, and the submission deadline is 5 working days. Payment processors do not issue invoices that comply with Romanian law, so the store is connected to invoicing software that submits the invoices to RO e-Factura. Before launch, agree with your accountant: who issues the invoice, with which series, what VAT rates the products have (if the company is registered for VAT) and how returns are handled.
7. Payment
Card payments are a separate topic: 3-D Secure authentication, confirming the order only after the payment is confirmed, test cards. We have put them together in card payments on your online store.
8. Emails
Order, shipping and password reset emails must land in the inbox, not in spam. Send them from an address on the store’s domain, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up (why it matters), and test each type of email with a Gmail address and an Outlook address.
9. The technical side
- an active SSL certificate and a redirect to
https://(what SSL does); - daily backups and a restore tried at least once (the 3-2-1 rule);
- a real cron job for scheduled tasks, if the store runs on WooCommerce (WooCommerce guide);
- uptime monitoring, so you are the first to know when it goes down (uptime and monitoring);
- mobile speed tested on the product page and in the cart;
- cart, checkout and account pages excluded from the cache.
10. The test order
The last step: a complete order, just like a customer. You find the product, add it to the cart, pay with a test card, receive the confirmation email and the invoice, then try the withdrawal too. Only after that is the store ready.
For hosting an online store, the Store plan is the starting point (web hosting). If you want the store built from scratch, with the legal pages, the ANPC pictogram and invoicing connected, see website and online store design.