Romania

This page contains information on statutory alcohol marketing regulations in Romania (table 1); a description of the restrictions per medium (table 2); labelling information (table 3); self-regulations on alcohol marketing (table 4); the complaints procedure; a summary about the Romanian regulations on alcohol marketing and exhaustive, downloadable documents from the ELSA & FASE research projects.

Show more about the complaints procedure in this country>>

Complaints procedure
Decision regarding the advertising, sponsorship and teleshopping, statutory:
– Complaints can be made to National Council of Audio-Visual.
– The supervision of the application, the control of the fulfillment of the liabilities and the sanctioning of infringements of the provisions of this Law is incumbent on the National Audiovisual Council and the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, in compliance with its attributions, granted by the law.
– The exertion of the control activity shall be accomplished under the terms of this Law, as follows: a) ex officio; b) on request of a public authority; c) as a consequence of a complaint handed in by a natural or legal person, directly affected by the infringement of the provisions of this Law.
– The infringement by radio-broadcasters or service distributors of the provisions of this Law, or of the decisions representing regulation norms issued by the Council, shall be considered contravention. The Council or, as the case may be, the National Regulation Authority for Communications, shall issue until applying the fine, a summons for becoming lawful, with precise terms. If the radio-broadcaster or the service distributor does not enter into legality within the terms and under the conditions established in the summons or if he again infringes these provisions, an infringement fine from ROL 25.000.000 – ROL 250.000.000 shall be applied.
– When individualising the sanctions, the National Audiovisual Council shall take into account per case the following: a) the seriousness of the fact and its effects; b) the previous sanctions, for a period not longer than one year; c) the day of the week and the broadcasting time span of the respective programme; d) the programme duration; e) the rating.

The Advertising Law, statutory:
The search for violations is done by:
– Consumer’s Protection Office
– Local Public Administration
– Ministry of Health

Complaints can be made to the same bodies. During a procedure a marketing practice can still be used. Sanctions, where appropriate, are imposed by the same bodies as mentioned above and can be a fine (Article 23).

Law regarding the social life and public order norms, statutory:
The search for violations is done by
– Local Public Administration
– Police
– Gendarmerie

Complaints can be made to the same bodies. During a procedure, a marketing practice can still be used. Sanctions, where appropriate, are imposed by the same bodies. Possible sanctions:
– A fine (Article 3) between 8 and 200 RON (between €2,5 and €70)
– Cessation of the activity in the public place for a period between 10 and 30 days.
– Jail from 1 to 6 months.

Article. 7: Minor offences are ascertained by the mayor or by his empowered persons, by the police inspectors, military officers, gendarmerie, employees hired with a work contract. If the minor offences for which the law foresees fine sanctions, the ascertaining agent applies both the ruling and the sanction.

Decision regarding certain measures for schoolchildren and students, statutory:
The search for violations is performed by Local Public Administration and Police. Complaints can be made to the same bodies.

Show more detailed information about the alcohol marketing regulations in this country>>

Romanian consumers remain price sensitive, but product availability and advertising have both been strong tools in raising brand awareness over the last years. Strong competition among beer manufacturers makes alcoholic drinks one of the most dynamic markets in Romania. An indication of the strength of competition is the level of the advertising expenditure, amounting to more than US$38 million for beer alone. Advertising for wine and spirits also increased sharply in the last two years, especially for new brand launches.

Joining the EU in 2007 brought important changes in the alcoholic drinks market as Romania now has to apply the same legislation as the EU.

Advertising of alcoholic beverages is regulated by the Advertising Law no.148/2000, which transposes certain European Union Rules and Regulations in this field. It states that advertising of alcoholic beverages is forbidden within educational institutions and medical care units or under 200 meter from their entrance on a public road.

Also, the advertising of alcoholic beverages is not allowed in publications for minors, in show halls before, during or after shows dedicated to minors. Furthermore, any advertisement is forbidden which addresses directly to minors or shows minors consuming these products. The advertisement which suggests that these products present therapeutic properties, have sedative or stimulant effects or can solve personal problems and which give a negative image about abstinence are also banned.

Advertising of distilled spirits is allowed in Romania only through magazines and newspapers, television and radio. It is forbidden to explicitly advertise on the first and on the last page of a publication, as well as on the travel tickets.

The Code of Regulation of the Audiovisual Content Decision no. 187 of 3 April 2006, regarding advertising, sponsorship and teleshopping was issued taking into account the harm done to minors by alcohol consumption and the fact that from the statistics published by public and private institutions can be concluded that a correlation exists between the increase of alcohol consumption among the minors and of the alcoholic distilled beverages advertising.

The spots that promote distilled spirits will end with the warning, audio and visual: “Excessive alcohol consumption seriously harms the health status”.

Table 1	Statutory Alcohol marketing regulations in Romania	Coverage
	Decizia 220/2011 continut audiovizual (Decision no. 220 of the 4th of May 2011 with regard to the Code regulating the contents of the audio-visual)	TV and cinema
	The Audio Visual Law no. 504/2002 with subsequent updates (last update in Oct 2016)	Broadcast (tv, radio: advertising, sponsoring and teleshopping)
	The Advertising Law no 148/2000 with subsequent updates	Mass-media advertising
	Government Decision 106/2002 (updated 2015) regarding the aliments labelling (including alcoholic drinks)	Labelling
	Order 1541/2014 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and the National Authority for Consumer Protection with regard to the labelling of other drinks than beer and wine	Production and sale
	Law no. 61/September 27th, 1991 (regarding the social life and public order norms), updated in 2014	All kinds of marketing
	Decision no. 128/March 30th, 1994 (regarding certain measures for ensuring the physical and moral development conditions for schoolchildren and students	Advertising, sale and consumption

Table 2 Regulations per medium	Type of restrictions
TV	Youth protection policy (Article 12, 13 The Advertising Law no 148/2000)
	Rules on classifying audiovisual productions
	Content restrictions (Article 13 Youth protection policy (Article 12, 13 The Advertising Law no 148/2000)
	Watershed: between 06:00 am – 22:00 pm, it is prohibited to broadcast programmes sponsored by companies whose names or trademarks are identical to the name or trademark of an alcoholic beverage. Ban on advertising for distilled alcoholic drinks between 06:00 am - 22:00 pm.
Radio	Watershed: ban on advertising for distilled alcoholic drinks between 06:00 am - 22:00 pm.
Outdoor marketing	None
Printed media	Ban on advertising for alcoholic drinks on the first and last page of printed magazines.
Cinema	Youth protection policy (Article 12, 13 The Advertising Law no 148/2000)
	Rules on classifying audiovisual productions
	Content restrictions (Article 13 Youth protection policy (Article 12, 13 The Advertising Law no 148/2000)
Internet/digital media	None
Promotional items	None (only self-regulations)
(Sports) sponsorship	None

Table 3 Labelling information	Description	Legally binding or self-regulation
Health warnings:	The advertising packages that promote products of distilled alcohol shall end with the audio and visual warning “Excessive consumption of alcohol seriously damages health (Article 134)	Legally binding
Ingredients/nutritional information	Ingredients are labelled (quantity and categories), alcohol concentration	Legally binding (Government Decision 106/2002 (updated 2015) regarding the aliments labelling (including alcoholic drinks))

Table 4 Self-regulations on alcohol marketing in Romania	Coverage
The Code of Advertising Practice by the Romanian Advertising Council (RAC)	Promotional items

The following document contains an in depth (but older) overview of alcohol marketing regulations in Romania: alcohol-marketing-regulations-Romania.pdf

For even more (but older) information on alcohol marketing regulations in Romania, please take a look at Romania’s appendix to the 2007 ELSA (Enforcement of national Laws and Self-regulation on advertising and marketing of Alcohol) report.