In brief

  • Fines for advertising billboards, illuminated signs and posters stuck where they should not be now fall under the general regime of administrative offences. Until this law, Law no. 185/2013 borrowed a single element from that regime, the rule on entry into force.
  • In practice, anyone who receives such a fine now gets the full set of usual guarantees: the content requirements for the offence report, the complaint to the district court within 15 days of service, the limitation periods and the option of paying half the minimum fine within 15 days.
  • Those affected are the owners of advertising structures, companies that place advertising on their facade or on vehicles, outdoor advertising agencies and town halls, which can themselves be sanctioned if they fail to install the panels for posters and small advertisements.
Act: Law no. 152/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 596 of 21 July 2026
In force from: 24 July 2026

A fine of up to 20,000 lei for an advertising billboard is now contested under the rules everyone knows from ordinary fines. The law has closed a gap that had been open for eight years. Law no. 152/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 596 of 21 July 2026, adds a single paragraph to Article 50 of Law no. 185/2013 on the placement and authorisation of advertising structures. It is the second targeted summer intervention in a field that the new Code of Territorial Planning, Urbanism and Construction has rewritten as a whole.

The new text is short: the provisions of Government Ordinance no. 2/2001 on the legal regime of administrative offences, approved by Law no. 180/2002, apply to the offences set out in Article 49 paragraph (1).

To see what is at stake, it is worth reading what Article 50 said before. In the form republished in Official Gazette of Romania no. 147 of 15 February 2018, the article had a single paragraph and referred to Government Ordinance no. 2/2001 only for Article 4 paragraph (1), that is, strictly for the rule under which provisions on administrative offences enter into force 30 days after publication. On the rest of the offence regime, the law was silent.

And the sanctioned conduct is not in short supply. Article 49 paragraph (1) lists seven administrative offences: placing advertising structures without a temporary advertising permit, or placing panels with foundations without a building permit; failing to observe the types and dimensions allowed by the local advertising regulation; using sound devices that disturb public quiet, or illuminated advertisements that interfere with traffic; failing to restore the site to its initial condition; failing to maintain the panels; sticking posters in places other than those specially designated; and, at letter g), even the failure of town halls to comply with their obligation to install the panels for posters and small advertisements.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is that the offence report must comply with the content requirements of Government Ordinance no. 2/2001. The absence of essential particulars thus becomes a verifiable ground of nullity, rather than a matter left to the assessment of each individual court.

The second effect concerns the remedy. The complaint against the offence report is lodged with the district court, within 15 days of handover or service, under the procedure set out in the ordinance. Anyone who has received a fine for a billboard now knows exactly where to go and how long they have.

The third effect is the most tangible financially. The mechanism in Article 28 of the ordinance allows payment of half the minimum fine within 15 days of the handover or service of the offence report, provided the enforcement officer has recorded that option. Among the fines in Article 49 paragraph (2), the minimum is 1,000 lei for placement without a permit or authorisation, 1,000 lei for sound and illuminated advertisements that cause a nuisance, and 500 lei for failing to maintain the panels. The difference between paying quickly and letting the deadline pass therefore runs into hundreds of lei.

The fourth effect concerns time limits. The ordinance sets the limitation period for applying the sanction at 6 months from the date the act was committed, and for continuing offences the period runs from the date of ascertainment. It also provides that enforcement of the fine becomes time-barred if the offence report was not served within one month of the date it was issued. These are the benchmarks available to anyone who believes they were sanctioned too late.

The fifth effect is one of proportionality. The ordinance provides for the warning as a sanction and requires the individualisation of the penalty according to the seriousness of the act and the circumstances in which it was committed. For a business that has exceeded the permitted dimensions by a small margin, that matters.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Previously, Law no. 185/2013 established administrative offences and fines, but did not state that the general regime applied to them. A reference did exist, but it was narrow: only to Article 4 paragraph (1) of Government Ordinance no. 2/2001, that is, to the 30-day period within which provisions on administrative offences enter into force. That reference now remains in paragraph (1) of Article 50.

From now on, it is joined by paragraph (2), which applies the entire ordinance to the conduct covered by Article 49 paragraph (1). This is the difference between borrowing a rule and taking over a regime.

Nothing changes as regards the offences themselves or the amounts. The administrative offences remain the seven listed in Article 49 paragraph (1), and the fines remain those in paragraph (2) of the same article: 1,000 to 10,000 lei for placement without a permit or authorisation, for failure to observe the permitted types and dimensions, and for posters stuck at random; 1,000 to 20,000 lei for sound or illuminated advertising that causes a nuisance, for failure to restore the land to its initial condition, and for town halls that do not install the panels; 500 to 1,000 lei for failing to maintain the advertising structure.

What does change is the position from which you argue about the fine. Until now, a person sanctioned who invoked the nullity of the offence report or the limitation period relied on an argument of interpretation, because the special law did not refer to the general regime. Now the reference is express and written into the law.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • It removes an eight-year-old uncertainty about which procedural rules apply to fines for street advertising.
  • It gives the persons sanctioned the usual guarantees: an offence report whose content can be checked, a complaint to the district court within 15 days, and clear limitation periods.
  • It opens up the possibility of paying half the minimum fine within 15 days, which is a real incentive to pay quickly rather than to drag things out.
  • It brings in the warning and the individualisation of the penalty, both useful for minor breaches, such as a sign a few centimetres over the permitted size.

What remains a problem

  • The law does not touch the amounts, which have remained unchanged since 2013. A minimum fine of 1,000 lei hits a neighbourhood kiosk and an outdoor advertising company very differently.
  • It clarifies nothing about local advertising regulations, even though many administrative offences are defined by reference to them, and they differ from one locality to another.
  • The offence at letter g), which sanctions the town hall, remains difficult to apply in practice: it is not clear who ascertains a breach by the local authority.
  • The text solves a procedural problem, not a substantive one. Advertising clutter in cities is a matter of local regulations and effective enforcement, not of a reference to Government Ordinance no. 2/2001.

Practical advice

  1. If you receive an offence report for an advertising structure, check first whether the enforcement officer recorded the option of paying half the minimum fine. That mention must appear in the offence report itself.
  2. Count the 15 days from handover or service, not from the date the offence report was drawn up. The same period matters both for the reduced payment and for the complaint.
  3. Before contesting, look closely at what exactly you are accused of. The lack of a temporary advertising permit and the lack of a building permit for a panel with foundations are different offences, with different defences.
  4. Ask for the local advertising regulation of your locality. The permitted types and dimensions, as well as the places designated for posters, are set there, and the offences at letters b) and f) are defined by reference to it.
  5. If the fine arrives long after the act, check the 6-month limitation period for applying the sanction, and if the offence report was served on you late, check the one-month period from the date it was issued as well.
  6. For minor breaches, expressly ask for the individualisation of the penalty and, where appropriate, for a warning. Government Ordinance no. 2/2001 provides for it, and it now applies here too.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly does Law no. 152/2026 change?
It adds a new paragraph to Article 50 of Law no. 185/2013, providing that the provisions of Government Ordinance no. 2/2001 on the legal regime of administrative offences apply to the conduct sanctioned as administrative offences under Article 49 paragraph (1) of that law.
Do the fines change?
No. They remain those set out in Article 49 paragraph (2): 1,000 to 10,000 lei, 1,000 to 20,000 lei and 500 to 1,000 lei, depending on the act. The law intervenes in the procedural regime, not in the amounts.
Can I pay half the fine?
The mechanism in Article 28 of Government Ordinance no. 2/2001 allows payment of half the minimum fine laid down by the act, within no more than 15 days of the handover or service of the offence report, and the enforcement officer records that this option is available.
Where do I contest the fine, and how long do I have?
The complaint against the offence report is lodged with the district court, within 15 days of the date of handover or service, under the procedure set out in Government Ordinance no. 2/2001.
Which acts are sanctioned as administrative offences?
The seven listed in Article 49 paragraph (1): placement without a permit or without a building permit, failure to observe the permitted types and dimensions, sound or illuminated advertising that disturbs public quiet or traffic, failure to restore the site to its initial condition, failure to maintain the advertising structure, posters stuck in places other than those designated, and the failure of the town hall to comply with its obligation to install the special panels.
Why was this addition needed?
Because the law referred to Government Ordinance no. 2/2001 only for the rule on the entry into force of provisions concerning administrative offences, and not for the rest of the regime. Applying the procedural guarantees therefore remained a matter of interpretation.
Does it also apply to fines received before it entered into force?
The law produces effects for the future. For offence reports drawn up earlier, the applicable regime is argued according to the date of the act and the stage of the procedure, and here the last word belongs to the court hearing the complaint.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 596 of 21 July 2026 16 pages PDF, 112 KB the act starts on page 5

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.