# How to open an advertising agency, a design studio or a translation agency in Moldova

Advertising, market research, design and photography, translation: none of them needs a licence, and an agency does not have to be entered in any special register. There are three exceptions, and they are precise. Outdoor advertising goes through the town hall. Political polls during an election period go through the Central Electoral Commission. And translations that a notary or a court will accept can be signed only by an authorised translator, personally, not by the company.

## In brief

- **CAEM codes:** Divisions 73 and 74
- **Licence:** Not required (no class is in the licence nomenclature)
- **Share capital:** No minimum
- **Independent entrepreneur:** Design, photography, translation, market research (but not advertising agencies)

## Advertising agency: no register, but liable for what you distribute

An advertising agency needs no licence, no authorisation and no entry in any register. The Advertising Law divides the roles — supplier, producer, distributor, disseminator — and places duties on each. An agency is usually producer and distributor at once, so it answers for copyright and image rights in the materials and for the content it sends out for dissemination.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 73.11 | Advertising agencies | The code of an advertising agency: campaign concept, production of materials, management of online and social media advertising. No permit. |
| 73.12 | Media representation | Selling and reselling advertising time and space in the press, on radio, on television and online, on behalf of the media. No permit. |

**Permits:** Classes 73.11 and 73.12 do not appear in the permit nomenclature, nor in any other law as an authorised activity. In place of a permit stand the content rules of the Advertising Law: labelling advertising as such, copy free of spelling mistakes, prior consent for advertising by email and telephone, keeping materials for one year, and product restrictions ranging from alcohol to financial products.

**Who buys it:** Companies that cannot afford a marketing department — retail, restaurants, clinics, property developers — buying campaigns, social media content and paid online advertising. Then large companies and chains, which work with agencies on annual contracts, and clients abroad, who buy production at local cost.

**What is different about the money:** An advertising agency has no access to the independent entrepreneur regime: classes 73.11 and 73.12 are not on the list, so it works as a company. Average gross earnings in advertising and market research stood at almost 20,600 lei at the end of 2025, a quarter above the national average.

## Billboards: a notification to the town hall or a building permit

A fixed advertising device is installed on the basis of a notification to the town hall if the works do not touch the load-bearing structure of the building, or on the basis of a building permit if they do. The town hall answers the notification within 10 working days and may not approve or interfere with the content or design of the advertisement. The billboard must be mounted within six months.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 73.11 | Advertising agencies | Outdoor advertising belongs here too — billboards, screens, banners, vehicle advertising. Every fixed device goes through a notification to the town hall or a building permit. |

- **Notification: Notification of the installation of an advertising device** — The town hall of the locality. Installing an outdoor advertising device that does not alter the load-bearing structure of the building; if it does, a building permit is required. The notification is filed together with the device's passport: a topographic plan at 1:500 and a photograph, the dimensions, faces and surface area, the owner's written consent for walls or roofs, and a declaration that no building permit is needed. The town hall accepts the notification even when incomplete and answers within 10 working days. The device is installed within six months, otherwise the notification is cancelled. A shop’s own sign on its façade, of up to 3 square metres, is not outdoor advertising and needs no notification.

**Who buys it:** Retail and service chains, which want visibility on the main roads, property developers, who promote their projects for as long as sales run, and advertising agencies, which buy space for their clients. Public authorities buy space for public interest messages.

**What is different about the money:** A billboard brings two local taxes, at rates set by each town hall: the tax on advertising devices, calculated per square metre of face area, and the advertising placement tax, calculated on revenue from the sale of advertising services. The capital sits in structures, not in people: a device cannot be allowed to stand empty.

## Market research and polling: unrestricted, except during an election period

Market research and opinion polls require no permit. During an election period, however, a poll on voters' political preferences may be conducted and published only if it is authorised by the Central Electoral Commission, and the right to conduct it belongs only to legal persons engaged in research or to specialised organisations registered in Moldova.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 73.20 | Market research and public opinion polling | Market research, opinion polls, audience research. No permit outside an election period; political polls during a campaign are authorised by the Central Electoral Commission. |

**Permits:** Class 73.20 does not appear in the permit nomenclature. What applies instead of a permit is data protection: a company running a survey for a client is a processor, works under a contract with mandatory content, and political opinions are special category data. The authorisation from the Central Electoral Commission covers each election poll individually, not the company.

**Who buys it:** Retail chains, manufacturers and banks, which want to know what customers buy and why. Advertising agencies, which measure their campaigns. International organisations and grant-funded projects, which commission social research, and parties and the media in election years.

**What is different about the money:** Fieldwork is paid per project and done by interviewers hired temporarily, so costs follow the contracts. An election poll carries a calendar constraint on top: the application to the Commission is filed at least ten days before the election, and the results are published no later than two days before polling day.

## Design or photography studio: no permit, but mind the copyright

Specialised design and photography require no licence, authorisation or notification. The legal risk lies elsewhere: absent a contrary clause, the economic rights in a work created by an employee or to order belong to the author, not to the company. A studio selling a logo or a photograph can pass to the client only the rights it has itself acquired, in writing.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 74.10 | Specialised design activities | Graphic, product, interior and fashion design. No permit. Eligible for the IT park regime only if based on specialised high-performance computing equipment. |
| 74.20 | Photographic activities | Commercial, event, product and aerial photography. No permit. |

**Permits:** Classes 74.10 and 74.20 do not appear in the permit nomenclature. In place of a permit stands the Copyright Law: the contract with the designer or photographer must name the rights assigned, the term, the territory and the remuneration, and an assignment with no term in an employment contract expires after three years, when the rights revert to the author.

**Who buys it:** Advertising agencies, which subcontract visual identity and photo production. Companies getting a website, packaging or a catalogue made. Clients abroad, who buy design remotely and pay in foreign currency, and private individuals, for event photography.

**What is different about the money:** Specialised design is one of the few activities outside IT included in the IT park tax regime, but only when it is based on specialised high-performance computing equipment. A designer or photographer working alone also has the option of the independent entrepreneur regime.

## Translation agency: the authorisation belongs to the translator, not the company

A translation agency needs no permit to translate for private clients. For courts, the prosecution service, notaries, lawyers and bailiffs, however, only translators authorised by the Ministry of Justice may translate. The authorisation is personal: the translator certifies the translation with their own signature and seal, and the company works through them, under an employment contract or a service contract.

| Code | Activity | What it means in practice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 74.30 | Translation and interpretation activities | Written translation and interpreting. No permit for the company; translations for notaries, courts and law enforcement bodies are certified by a translator authorised by the Ministry of Justice. |

- **Authorisation: Authorisation as an interpreter or translator in the justice sector** — Ministry of Justice, valid for Unlimited. Translation and interpreting for courts, the prosecution service, criminal investigation bodies, notaries, lawyers and bailiffs. It requires a university degree in foreign languages or in law, two years of experience and a certification exam, held once a year. For rare or oriental languages and for sign language, no degree is required. The authorisation is issued within 15 days, costs 450 lei and is personal: a company cannot be authorised.

**Who buys it:** People leaving to study or work abroad, who need documents translated and legalised by a notary. Companies with foreign partners, for contracts and documentation. Courts and criminal investigation bodies, which engage authorised interpreters for hearings and questioning.

**What is different about the money:** Volume comes from legalised translations, and legalisation goes through a notary, so a translation agency next to a notary's office has a real advantage. An authorised translator keeps a register of every job, with the fee received, and is subject to disciplinary liability: a fine of 600 to 3,000 lei, suspension or withdrawal of the authorisation.

## How the sector got here

- **8 January 2023 — Law 62/2022 on advertising.** The new advertising law enters into force and repeals the 1997 one. Outdoor advertising moves to a notification to the town hall or a building permit, and town halls are prohibited from approving or interfering with the content of advertisements.
- **28 July 2023 — Central Electoral Commission Decision 1138/2023.** The Central Electoral Commission approves the regulation on opinion polls and exit polls during the election period: authorisation for each poll, a ban on companies that have had public contracts or state aid in the last three years, and a duty to publish, together with the results, the client, the beneficial owner and the margin of error.
- **25 June 2026 — Tax Code, chapter 10⁴.** Market research, design, photography and translation join the list of activities open to the independent entrepreneur regime, with a single 15% tax up to 1.2 million lei of income a year. Advertising agencies and media representation stay off the list.

## What it pays and how big the market is

For 2025, 1,130 advertising and market research companies filed financial statements, as did 1,083 companies in the division that groups design, photography and translation with other professional activities. Together that makes more than 2,200 companies, with about 4,200 employees and sales revenue of over 3.1 billion lei. Both divisions grew by more than a hundred companies each compared with 2024.

Almost all of them are small: 96 companies out of 100 have fewer than ten employees. This is a market of studios, of teams of a few people and of professionals working alone.

Pay is above average in both divisions. At the end of 2025, average gross earnings were about 20,600 lei in advertising and market research and 19,750 in the other division, against roughly 16,400 across the economy. The tiles above show neither figure, because the page covers both divisions.

One figure deserves the attention of anyone starting out: more than one advertising company in four recorded no sales at all in 2025. The market is open, but it is unforgiving to an agency without clients from day one.

## The agency registers nowhere, but answers for what it distributes

The Advertising Law has no concept of an agency. It recognises four roles: the supplier, who determines the subject of the advertisement; the producer, who gives it its final form; the distributor, who carries it to dissemination; and the disseminator, who shows it to the public. A full-service agency is, as a rule, producer and distributor at once.

This matters because liability follows the role. The supplier is liable for any false information it provided and must prove the authenticity of the advertisement. The producer is liable for infringement of copyright and of the right to one's own image. The distributor is liable for the content it sends out for dissemination. And if the producer or the distributor cannot be identified, liability passes to the party next to them in the chain. A client can be held liable for no more than three months after the last dissemination.

A few rules that feed straight into an agency's workflow:

- **Advertising must be recognisable as advertising.** Commercial advertising carries the label "Publicitate" (Advertising) or the sign "P", and unlabelled paid content in the media is treated as misleading advertising. The rule applies to social networks too, which fall expressly within the definition of online advertising.
- **No spelling mistakes.** The law prohibits advertising copy that does not comply with current spelling norms, which makes proofreading a mandatory step, not a luxury.
- **A person's image and voice** may be used only under a written contract with that person, and their consent can be withdrawn.
- **Advertising by email and telephone** requires prior express consent. For email, an unsubscribe takes effect within 72 hours.
- **Materials are kept for one year** after the last dissemination, by the distributor and by the disseminator.
- **Products under a special regime** have rules of their own. Alcohol advertising is prohibited, among other places, at sporting events, on public transport and within 200 metres of the entrances to schools and medical institutions. Advertising for financial products may not promise guaranteed returns or dividends.

The Advertising Law does not require any particular language for commercial advertising. Romanian is mandatory only for public interest messages.

Oversight belongs to the Competition Council and, for audiovisual advertising, to the Audiovisual Council.

## Outdoor advertising: the town hall may not judge your advertisement

Since 2023 there has been no separate authorisation for placing advertising. A fixed device is installed either under a building permit, where the works touch the load-bearing structure of the building, or under a simple notification to the town hall in every other case.

The notification procedure is designed to favour the person filing it. The town hall must accept it even when it is incomplete, checks the identity data itself through the state systems and answers within 10 working days. The device must be mounted no later than six months after the notification. For a single device of up to four square metres, on the façade of non-residential premises on the ground floor, with its lighting switched off between 22:00 and 07:00, not even the owner's consent is needed.

The most important rule for a billboard company: **the town hall has no right to approve the content or design of the advertisement, nor to interfere with them.** It decides where and how the billboard goes up, through the local outdoor advertising regulations, which set the distances and heights. What the billboard says is none of its business.

The law prohibits devices, among other places, on museums and monuments, on trees, on roundabouts, on the carriageway and on road signs. Advertising on taxis and on inter-district or international vehicles requires a contract registered with the town hall and prior approval from the Police.

From a billboard's income, the town hall may collect only what the Tax Code provides for: the tax on advertising devices, per square metre of face, and the advertising placement tax, on the revenue earned. The second tax does not apply to advertising on television, on the internet, on radio and in the printed press, so an agency working only online does not owe it.

## The agency sells only the rights it has bought in writing

This is the most common mistake in a young agency, and the bill arrives only when the client wants to register its trademark or reuse a campaign.

The Copyright Law starts from the author. For a work created by an employee in the course of their duties, the economic rights belong to the employee, and the employer may use it only within its own business. For a work made to order by a collaborator, the rights belong to the collaborator. Both rules apply only "in the absence of a contrary contractual provision" — so the contract can change them, but it has to actually do so.

And the contract has to be well drafted. The assignment must name the rights assigned, the term, the scope and the remuneration, otherwise either party may seek termination. An assignment with no term in an employment contract expires three years after delivery of the work, and the rights revert to the author. An assignment of all future works is void.

The Advertising Law closes the circle: the disseminator may ask the distributor for proof of copyright and image rights, and may refuse the advertisement without it. An agency whose chain of assignments is not in order cannot deliver.

## Election polls and personal data

A polling institute works freely at all times, except during an election period. During a campaign, only legal persons engaged in research and specialised organisations registered in Moldova may conduct political polls, only with the authorisation of the Central Electoral Commission, and separately for each poll.

The Commission's regulation excludes several categories of clients and contractors: public sector entities, companies that have had public procurement contracts or state aid in the last three years, foreign authorities and anonymous persons. Published together with the results are the client and its beneficial owner, the company that carried out the poll, the sample size, the refusal rate and the margin of error. On election day, nobody may make exit poll results public before 21:00.

Outside elections, the rule that matters is data protection. A company carrying out a study for a client is a processor and works under a contract whose content is set by law; it may not subcontract without the client's written consent. Political opinions are special category data, the processing of which is, as a rule, prohibited. And the exemption from keeping a record of processing activities, provided for companies with fewer than 250 employees, does not apply where the processing is not occasional or concerns special category data — which is exactly the position of a polling institute.

## Authorised translation: a right of the individual, not of the company

The Law on interpreters and translators in the justice sector defines the authorised translator as a natural person. A company cannot be authorised. It can only employ or contract authorised translators.

Authorisation requires a university degree in foreign languages or in law, two years of experience, knowledge of Romanian, a clean criminal record and the certification exam, which is held once a year. For rare or oriental languages and for sign language, no degree is required. The application is filed within 30 days of the exam, and the authorisation is issued within 15 days, costs 450 lei and is entered in the State Register kept by the Ministry of Justice.

The translator certifies the translation with their own signature and seal, which carry their name, the languages they are authorised for and the authorisation number, and keeps a register of all their jobs, with the fee received. For a translation agency this has a business consequence: an authorised translator who leaves takes with them the agency's ability to work for notaries.

## Which legal form: SRL or independent entrepreneur

For an advertising agency, a billboard company or a polling institute, an SRL. An agency has no other tax option, because 73.11 and 73.12 are not on the independent entrepreneur list, and election polls may be conducted only by legal persons. Limited liability matters too, because the agency, as producer and distributor, answers for copyright and for the content of the advertising.

Since June 2026, a designer, photographer, translator or market researcher working alone also has the option of the independent entrepreneur regime: 15% of income up to 1.2 million lei a year and 35% above that, with no accounting and no tax returns. It is worth comparing against an SRL using your own figures, especially when your clients are large companies.

A design studio working on specialised high-performance computing equipment has a third option: the IT park regime, explained in the [Moldova IT Park guide](/en/blog/moldova-it-park-complete-guide) and checkable against your own figures with the [tax calculator](/en/it-park-calculator).

Foreign founders have only one extra thing to weigh: an agency with a foreign founder or beneficial owner may not distribute political advertising. For the rest of the market, the ownership structure makes no difference.

We handle the choice of CAEM codes, the constitutive document, filing the dossier with the Public Services Agency and opening the bank account, and we can take over the company's accounting from the first month. What each service includes is set out on the [corporate services](/en/corporate-services) page.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do you need a licence to open an advertising agency in Moldova?

No. No class in division 73 appears in the permit nomenclature, and the Advertising Law creates no register of agencies. The agency registers like any SRL, with code 73.11 and, if it sells advertising space on behalf of the media, 73.12. Its duties arise only from what it does: producing, distributing or disseminating advertising.

### Can an agency with a foreign founder handle political advertising?

Not as a distributor. The Advertising Law prohibits the distribution of political advertising by a legal person registered in Moldova whose founder, member or beneficial owner is a foreign legal person or a person without citizenship of the Republic of Moldova. The rule matters in election years, when political advertising is a large part of the market, and has to be kept in mind when the ownership structure is set.

### How do you get permission for a billboard?

It depends on the works. If the installation does not alter the load-bearing structure of the building, you file a notification with the town hall, with the device's passport: topographic plan, photograph, dimensions, the owner's consent and a declaration that you do not need a building permit. The town hall answers within 10 working days. If the works touch the structure, you need a building permit. Distances and heights are set by each town hall's outdoor advertising regulations.

### Do you need an authorisation for an opinion poll?

Outside an election period, no. During an election period, any poll on voters' political preferences may be conducted and published only with the authorisation of the Central Electoral Commission. The application is filed at least ten days before the election, the Commission decides within five days, and fieldwork begins only after the decision. The results are published no later than two days before the vote.

### Who owns the rights to a logo made by an employee?

Absent a contrary clause, the economic rights belong to the employee who created it, and the employer may use the work only within the scope of its business. If you want to pass the rights on to a client, you need a written assignment. Watch the term: an assignment in an employment contract that does not specify its duration is valid for three years from delivery of the work, after which the rights revert to the author.

### Who can translate documents for a notary in Moldova?

Only a translator authorised by the Ministry of Justice and entered in the State Register of Authorised Interpreters and Translators. The authorisation is personal, costs 450 lei and is obtained after an exam. The translator certifies the translation with their own signature and seal, which carry their name, their languages and the authorisation number. A translation agency therefore works with authorised translators, employed or under contract.

### Do you charge VAT to a client abroad for advertising or translation?

Not Moldovan VAT. For advertising, marketing and market research services, for translation of texts and for the transfer of copyright, the place of supply is the client's seat. If the client is abroad, the service is not supplied in Moldova. The threshold for mandatory VAT registration is 1.7 million lei in any 12 consecutive months.

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