The Romanian ANAF has the authority to levy large fines on those who fail to meet card payment obligations beginning in January 2023

Many retailers are required to accept card payments, but they do not comply with the laws. For all of them, there is serious news starting on January 1, 2023. The law that will enter into force will allow ANAF to issue large fines for certain non-compliance with prescribed obligations.

Also, the Ordinance on modern payment systems lists, in Article 3, several acts that can be punished as contraventions by the control authorities, among which are:

• Noncompliance by merchants and service providers with the obligation to accept card payment (if cash receipts exceed 50,000 lei, which is approximately 10.000 euros, effective from 2023) - fines ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 lei;
• Refusal to accept bank cards as a form of payment by legal entities required to accept them carries a fine ranging from 5,000 to 7,500 lei.
• Destruction, damage, or technical modification of payment terminals can cause erroneous registrations or generate fraud—a fine of 20,000 to 50,000 lei.

ANAF has explained another precise requirement, and that is that starting in 2023, traders are required to accept card payments based on cash receipts made during the year, not on the whole turnover. Previously, it was stated that the obligation would begin in 2023 for those who achieve a turnover of more than 10,000 euros, the equivalent in lei; however, that requirement is now set based on the threshold associated with issued cash receipts, with a threshold of 50,000 lei (around 10.000 euros).

The obligation to accept debit, credit, or prepaid cards through a POS terminal and other modern acceptance solutions begins with the quarter following the one in which cash receipts exceeded the 50,000 lei threshold during the previous year.

If, for 2 consecutive years, the threshold mentioned above has not been exceeded, the entities designated no longer have an obligation to accept debit, credit, or prepaid cards, through a POS terminal and other modern acceptance solutions, but may choose optionally to continue accepting these payment instruments.

The detection of contraventions provided by GEO 193/2002 regarding the introduction of modern payment systems and the application of contraventional sanctions are done by the persons appointed within the structures with control powers of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (TA in Romanian).