Starting with 1990, for the first time after the Second World War, there was talk in Romania about the "consumer society" and "consumer protection".

The two concepts had to be accompanied by a legislative framework intended to regulate them, in a society not used to this approach.

Thus, together with it, in August 1992, the first governmental body was established in our country that has the responsibility of protecting the consumer, having an office in Bucharest and one in each county seat and being led by a general director.

PRESENTATION OF THE NATIONAL AUTHORITY FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION

The structure started its activity under the name of the Office for Consumer Protection, a name that it kept for 11 years and that imposed itself so strongly on the market that even today the abbreviation OPC is still popularly used, when talk about the institution.

Starting from 2003, the OPC becomes the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC), which will be led by a president and two vice-presidents and which is a much larger and more developed body, along with its basic attribution - market control and supervision - adding, one by one, over the years, special directions, some newly established, others traditional, very varied in terms of field:

• Directorate of Precious Metals
• European Consumer Center
• Directorate of Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Directorate of Insolvency of Natural Persons

To these are added the Larex Laboratories and the one dedicated to wines, both of which are in the process of being modernized.

As a territorial organization, the county structures of ANPC are called Commissariats and are coordinated, according to the new administrative division of the country, by 8 Regional Commissariats.