# How to open a beauty salon in Moldova

A beauty salon opens without a licence: no hairdressing or cosmetics service appears among Moldova's licensed activities. What you need is a trade notification to the town hall and, for the premises you work in, a sanitary operating authorisation issued free of charge by the National Agency for Public Health — the same one that covers body maintenance rooms, tattoo and piercing. A dry cleaner came off that list on 30 December 2025, and invasive procedures sit under a separate regime, the medical one.

## In brief

- **CAEM codes:** Division 96 and the codes around it
- **Licence:** None required (no beauty service is a licensed activity)
- **Sanitary authorisation:** Free, 5 years (the sanitary assessment costs 875 lei)
- **Share capital:** No minimum

## Beauty salon: the town hall notification and the sanitary authorisation

Hairdressing, barbering, manicure and cosmetics open without a licence. You file a trade notification with the town hall of the locality where you work, and you obtain the sanitary operating authorisation for the salon's address. The authorisation is issued free of charge by the National Agency for Public Health, within ten working days, and runs for five years.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 96.02 | Hairdressing and other beauty treatment | The salon's core code: cutting, styling, colouring, manicure, pedicure, make-up, non-invasive cosmetics. |
| 47.75 | Retail sale of cosmetic and toilet articles in specialised stores | Selling products to clients at the salon's reception. Cosmetic products you place on the market are notified separately to the public health agency. |

- **Authorisation: Sanitary operating authorisation** — National Agency for Public Health, valid for 5 years. Hairdressing and other beauty treatment, physical well-being, and tattoo and piercing studios. Issued for each address you work at, within ten working days, and free of charge — you pay only the assessment of the premises' sanitary condition, 875 lei.
- **Notification: Trade activity notification** — The town hall of the locality where you work. Any activity in division 96, from hairdressing to dry cleaning. Filed separately for each unit, online or at the counter, and costing 100 lei.

**Who buys it:** The end customer pays, out of monthly income, which gives you daily cash and no invoices to chase. Demand does not arrive in waves but steadily: a haircut repeats every four to six weeks, colour every three, a manicure more often. A salon builds its revenue on clients who come back, not on new ones.

**What is different about the money:** The large cost is the space and what goes into it, not the paperwork: the paperwork is 100 lei at the town hall and 875 lei for the sanitary assessment — around 5 and 44 euro. The lease is signed before the authorisation, though, because the authorisation is granted for an address and, if the lease runs shorter than five years, its validity ends with the lease.

## Body maintenance, tattoo and piercing: what the sanitary authorisation covers

Body maintenance rooms — massage, solarium, sauna, body care — and tattoo and piercing studios sit on the same list of activities subject to sanitary operating authorisation as hair salons. The procedure is identical: notification to the town hall, an authorisation per address, and staff with hygiene training on hiring and once every five years.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 96.04 | Physical well-being activities | Massage, solarium, sauna, baths, body-care programmes, spa centres. |
| 96.09 | Other personal service activities n.e.c. | Tattoo and piercing studios sit here — the only ones in this class that need a sanitary authorisation. |

- **Authorisation: Sanitary operating authorisation** — National Agency for Public Health, valid for 5 years. Hairdressing and other beauty treatment, physical well-being, and tattoo and piercing studios. Issued for each address you work at, within ten working days, and free of charge — you pay only the assessment of the premises' sanitary condition, 875 lei.
- **Notification: Trade activity notification** — The town hall of the locality where you work. Any activity in division 96, from hairdressing to dry cleaning. Filed separately for each unit, online or at the counter, and costing 100 lei.

**Who buys it:** The customer buys a session but usually pays for a package, which changes how the money arrives: you collect at the start of the month for services you deliver across it. Tattooing works the other way round — a single commission, a deposit, and appointments booked weeks ahead.

**What is different about the money:** Equipment is the cost that decides whether the branch works, and it is amortised per session rather than per month. Consumables — needles, inks, care products — are the variable cost, and they come from suppliers who can produce the product paperwork, because the same file is what an inspection asks for.

## Invasive procedures and medical cosmetology: where the salon ends

A salon's authorisation covers care and beautification of the body by non-invasive methods. Invasive treatment is medical activity: it runs under health-sector CAEM codes, with a permissive act obtained for medical activity and with staff who hold medical qualifications. The authorisation for non-invasive services does not cover it, however close the two beds stand.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 86.22 | Specialist medical practice activities | The dermatology or aesthetic surgery practice behind invasive procedures. |
| 86.90 | Other human health activities | The code for treatment and beautification delivered by staff with medical qualifications. |

- **Authorisation: Sanitary operating authorisation for medical activity** — National Agency for Public Health, valid for 5 years. Treatment and beautification of the body by invasive methods. It is the same permissive act, obtained for a medical activity code and for premises that meet the sanitary requirements attached to it.
- **Notification: Trade activity notification** — The town hall of the locality where you work. Any activity in division 96, from hairdressing to dry cleaning. Filed separately for each unit, online or at the counter, and costing 100 lei.

**Who buys it:** The client comes for a result a salon cannot produce, and compares providers by the doctor rather than by price. The average ticket is several times a cosmetics session, and the decision takes longer: consultation, treatment plan, then the procedure.

**What is different about the money:** Money here arrives through rare, expensive procedures rather than frequent cheap visits, so a clinic lives on reputation and referrals. The entry cost is the highest in the whole domain: the room has to meet the sanitary requirements for medical activity, and the doctor with the right specialisation is the employee the entire permissive act rests on.

## Dry cleaner and laundry: the branch that no longer needs a sanitary authorisation

Washing and dry-cleaning of textiles and fur products came off the list of activities subject to sanitary operating authorisation on 30 December 2025. What remains is the notification to the town hall, as for any trade activity, and hygiene training is required only of the person responsible for cleaning and disinfection, not of the whole team.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 96.01 | Washing and (dry-)cleaning of textile and fur products | Dry cleaning, laundry, self-service laundrettes. Since 30 December 2025, with no sanitary authorisation. |

- **Notification: Trade activity notification** — The town hall of the locality where you work. Any activity in division 96, from hairdressing to dry cleaning. Filed separately for each unit, online or at the counter, and costing 100 lei.

**Who buys it:** Half the revenue comes from people bringing in seasonal clothes, the other half from monthly contracts with hotels, restaurants, clinics and salons — including the salons in your own town, which have towels and gowns to wash every day. Those contracts are signed once and roll over.

**What is different about the money:** This is the branch with the largest investment in equipment and the smallest paperwork cost: since 30 December 2025 the opening file is the 100-lei notification, around 5 euro. The machines, the premises with the right connections and the energy bill are the real budget, and the business contracts are what cover it month after month.

## How the sector got here

- **28 February 2025 — Government Decision 38/2025.** New tariffs for chargeable public health services come into force. Assessing the sanitary condition of a business, at the authorisation stage, has cost 875 lei per assessment since then.
- **7 April 2025 — Ministry of Health Order 325/2025.** The list of occupations requiring compulsory hygiene training is approved anew. Staff providing beauty and body maintenance services — barbering, hairdressing, manicure, pedicure, tattoo and piercing, massage, solarium, cosmetic procedures — take four hours of training on hiring and once every five years.
- **30 December 2025 — Law 227/2025.** The list of activities subject to sanitary operating authorisation is rewritten by CAEM class. Hairdressing, body maintenance and tattoo and piercing studios stay on it; washing and dry-cleaning of textiles, on the list since 2017, comes off.
- **21 March 2026 — Law 25/2023.** Sanitary authorisation takes distinct forms for products and for activities, and the law now states outright that the sanitary operating authorisation is issued free of charge. Only the sanitary assessment is chargeable, at the tariffs the government approves.

## What the personal services market is worth

Companies in CAEM division 96 — hairdressing, cosmetics, body maintenance, dry cleaning — reported a turnover of 796.5 million lei for 2024, close to 40 million euro. In 2023 it was 637.2 million, and in 2022 — 479.3 million. Three years, one direction.

The number of companies climbed on the same curve: 793 in 2022, 817 in 2023, 932 in 2024. This is not a market divided between a few large players but one that dozens of new firms enter every year and where the average firm stays small — precisely the profile of a business that opens with a single location and grows out of its own takings.

Those figures cover the companies that report statistically. Alongside them works the single-chair salon held on an entrepreneur's patent, which appears in no statistic at all — and which is, usually, the first form of the business.

## Why now is a good time to open a beauty salon

Because this is one of the few fields where the state has removed requirements rather than added them. On 30 December 2025 the list of activities subject to sanitary operating authorisation was rewritten, and washing and dry-cleaning of textiles — on that list since 2017 — came off it. Anyone opening a dry cleaner today files one notification with the town hall and starts.

For salons the rule was clarified in the other direction: hairdressing, body maintenance and tattoo and piercing studios are named by CAEM code on the list, so you know exactly what is expected of you before you sign a lease. And since 21 March 2026 the law states outright that the sanitary operating authorisation is issued free of charge; only the assessment is paid for.

And because the barrier to entry is the craft, not the paperwork. There is no hairdresser's licence, no state examination, no minimum share capital. There is a space, a chair, an authorisation tied to the address, and clients who come back every four weeks. The company that holds all of it together — an SRL — is registered with no share capital and in a few working days.

## What it costs to open a beauty salon

The paperwork is the predictable part of the budget. The trade notification costs 100 lei — around 5 euro — and is filed with the town hall of the locality where the salon will operate, separately for each unit if you open more than one. The local council may reduce or waive that payment, particularly where the notification is filed online.

The sanitary operating authorisation itself costs nothing. You pay only for the assessment of the premises' sanitary condition, 875 lei — around 44 euro — settled when the application is filed, through MPay or at a bank. The file asks for a copy of the ownership deed or the lease for the space you will work in, and the list of services you will provide; the issuing deadline is ten working days.

Registering the SRL has no minimum share capital and takes a few working days at the Public Services Agency — we file the papers, pick the CAEM codes and hand you a company ready for the town hall notification. The rest of the budget — rent, fit-out, chairs, mirrors, the steriliser, the first stock of products — is where your choices matter, and the only part no piece of paper can help with.

## What to know before you open

### The authorisation attaches to the address, not to the company

The sanitary operating authorisation is issued for each address where you carry out the activity. If you move the salon, open a second location or change premises within the same building, the procedure starts again for the new address.

This is where the lease comes in: the authorisation runs for five years if you own the premises or hold a lease longer than five years, and if the lease is shorter, the authorisation expires with it. For premises with seasonal activity it is granted for one year. The lease, in other words, is negotiated before the file — not after.

### Your team needs hygiene training, not a state diploma

Staff providing beauty and body maintenance services — barbering, hairdressing, manicure, pedicure, tattoo and piercing, massage, solarium, cosmetic procedures — take four hours of hygiene training on hiring and then once every five years. Specialists with medical qualifications are exempt. Periodic hygiene training is provided free of charge.

At a dry cleaner the requirement is narrower: the training falls on the person responsible for organising and supervising cleaning and disinfection, not on every employee.

### The products you sell have a regime of their own

If you place cosmetic products on the market — importing them, or selling them under your own brand — they are notified to the National Agency for Public Health, and the sanitary expertise for that notification costs 339 lei per product. If you merely use and resell products supplied by an authorised distributor, the notification is their obligation, not yours.

Worth settling before the first order, because the question comes up at the first inspection and the answer sits in a single clause of the supply contract.

### The line between beauty and medicine is drawn on paper

Services authorised as beauty and body maintenance are intended to care for the body by non-invasive methods and do not fall within the medical field. Invasive treatment is delivered under medical activity codes, with a permissive act obtained for medical activity and with staff holding medical qualifications.

It is the most expensive mistake available in this field, because it surfaces at an inspection or, worse, at an incident. If you intend to offer invasive procedures too, the structure is set from the start: separate CAEM codes, a separate room, a doctor on the payroll. We prepare the file so the two regimes never blur into each other.

## Which legal form to choose: SRL, patent or sole trader

**An SRL — Moldova's limited liability company — is the form a beauty salon opens in**, and the main reason is not prestige but liability: it stays limited to the share capital, and your personal assets sit outside the business. In a field where you work on people's skin, with equipment, chemicals and procedures, that is exactly the line you want drawn from day one.

There is no entry threshold. An SRL has no minimum share capital, is registered at the Public Services Agency within a few working days, and from that same day opens everything that follows: you can hire stylists, open a second and a third location, sign contracts with hotels, clinics and gyms, sell products at reception and take payment by transfer. The sanitary operating authorisation is granted to legal and natural persons alike, so the form you choose does not complicate the file at the public health agency at all.

The entrepreneur's patent remains a genuine option for a single chair, and we will say so plainly. Barbering and cosmetic services are on the list of permitted activities, at a monthly fee of 200 lei in Chișinău, Bălți, Bender and Tiraspol, 80 lei in other municipalities and towns and 30 lei in rural localities — roughly 10, 4 and 1.5 euro. Laundry has its own entry, at 90, 45 and 30 lei.

It carries two hard limits, though, and you reach them quickly if things go well: sales income may not exceed 300,000 lei — around 15,000 euro — over 12 consecutive months, and the holder of a patent has no right to employ workers. That caps the salon at roughly 25,000 lei of takings a month and at one pair of hands: yours. A second stylist, a receptionist or the first colleague you share the rent with means a company, automatically.

The sole trader — *întreprindere individuală* — looks like a shortcut between the two, but it is not. The law says outright that it is not a legal person and that the owner is liable without limit, with their entire personal estate. You pay the same taxes as a company and keep the same records, while carrying the personal risk of a patent — the combination with no advantage in it.

Moving from a patent to an SRL is not a restart: the same clients, the same premises, the same sanitary authorisation obtained for the address. Only the signature changes. We register the SRL, choose your CAEM codes and prepare the sanitary authorisation file alongside your existing work, so the salon does not close for a single day — and if you are opening now, we start it directly in the shape you will want it to have in two years.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do you need a licence for a beauty salon in Moldova?

No. Moldova's list of licensed activities runs to 22 entries — from pharmaceutical activity to pawnshops — and none of them covers hairdressing, cosmetics or body maintenance. What you need is the trade notification to the town hall and the sanitary operating authorisation for the salon's address.

### How much does it cost to open a beauty salon in Moldova?

The paperwork costs 975 lei, around 49 euro: 100 lei for the trade notification and 875 lei for the sanitary assessment. The authorisation itself is issued free of charge, and an SRL has no minimum share capital. The rest of the budget goes into rent, fit-out and equipment.

### What CAEM code does a beauty salon use?

The core code is 96.02, hairdressing and other beauty treatment. If you sell products at reception you add 47.75, and for massage, solarium or sauna — 96.04. Tattoo and piercing fall under 96.09, dry cleaning under 96.01. You can declare several codes at once, at registration.

### How long is the sanitary operating authorisation valid?

Five years, if you own the premises or hold a lease longer than five years. If the lease is shorter, the authorisation runs as long as the lease; for seasonal premises it is granted for one year. It is issued within ten working days of the application.

### What do invasive beauty procedures require?

A permissive act obtained for medical activity, and staff with medical qualifications. Services authorised as beauty and body maintenance do not fall within the medical field: their purpose is care of the body by non-invasive methods. The two regimes are obtained separately, even when they are delivered in the same building.

### Does a dry cleaner still need a sanitary authorisation?

No. Washing and dry-cleaning of textile and fur products came off the list of activities subject to sanitary operating authorisation on 30 December 2025. What remains is the trade notification to the town hall, 100 lei, filed for each location.

### Can a foreign founder open a beauty salon in Moldova?

Yes. An SRL is registered without citizenship or residence conditions on the founders, and no beauty service is licensed, so there is no licensing condition to meet either. The sanitary authorisation is granted on the premises and the activity, not on who owns the company. What you do need is a Moldovan address to work from, because the authorisation is issued per address.

Choosing the CAEM codes, drafting the constitutive documents and filing with the Public Services Agency are part of the registration service.