Every seller in Serbia must clearly display a notice on how and where complaints are received at the point of sale, and a web shop also on its website. The seller must also keep a register of complaints and reply to the customer within 8 days. The new Consumer Protection Act has applied since 2 August 2026, so notices and registers made under the 2021 law should be updated before December and the wave of complaints after the holidays.
Below is a free generator that makes three things: a notice to print on A4 and text for your website, register pages to print or a table for Excel, and a reply to the customer with the deadlines worked out. After the generator we explain what each document must say and why.
In short: The notice must say how and where a complaint can be made: in person, by phone, in writing and electronically. The law sets no template, so there is no “official PDF”. The register is kept as a bound book or electronically and kept for at least two years. A complaint gets a written or electronic reply within 8 days and must be resolved within 15 days, or 30 for technical goods and furniture. The fine is RSD 100,000 for a sole trader and RSD 200,000 for a company.
Generator: notice, register and reply
Enter your shop details once. The generator turns them into the notice and the website text, and uses the same details in the register header and in the reply. Fields you have not filled in stay marked in yellow, so you do not print them empty.
1Notice on how and where complaints are received
Fields marked in yellow are not filled in yet. Put the notice up where customers can see it, and the text for your site on a "Complaints" page linked from the footer.
2Register of received complaints
Each page is landscape A4 with 10 numbered rows and every item from Article 63(8). Bind the printed pages, or keep the table electronically.
3Reply to a complaint
- Reply by
- -
- Resolve by
- -
The generator applies Articles 63 and 173 of the Serbian Consumer Protection Act (Official Gazette RS, no. 35/2026). Deadlines are in calendar days, not counting the day of receipt. Nothing you enter is sent to a server.
To print, choose “Save as PDF” if you want a file, and turn off the browser’s headers and footers in the print settings.
What the notice must say
Article 63(4) of the Consumer Protection Act requires the trader “to clearly display, at the point of sale and on the website (for distance sales), a notice on the way and place of receiving complaints, and to ensure that a person authorised to receive complaints is present during working hours” (our translation).
The law sets no template and no exact wording. Every “2026 notice PDF” online is someone’s proposal, ours included. The content follows from the rest of the same article:
| What to include | Why |
|---|---|
| Address and opening hours | Customers can complain in person at the point of sale or a place set for complaints (para. 5) |
| Phone | Complaints can also be made by phone (para. 5) |
| Postal address | And in writing (para. 5) |
| Email or a form on your site | And electronically (para. 5) |
| Receipt or other proof of purchase | The customer shows it; a copy of the receipt or a card slip also counts (para. 5) |
| Authorised person throughout opening hours | Duty under para. 4 |
| Deadlines: confirmation, reply, resolution | Paras. 7 and 9. Not a required part of the notice, but it tells the customer what to expect |
If you sell online, put the same text on a separate “Complaints” page linked from the footer, next to your terms of sale. If customers can send goods back by courier at your cost, that must be stated before the purchase (Article 27), so it is worth adding to the notice as well.
A second short notice goes with it: that by law you must take part in out-of-court consumer dispute resolution (Article 173(3)). It too must be shown at the point of sale and on the website, so the generator adds it to the bottom of the same sheet.
The complaints register: book or table
The register is kept “as a bound book or in electronic form” (Article 63(8)). You do not have to buy a ready-made complaints book. You can print the pages from the generator and bind them, or keep a table in Excel or Google Sheets.
The law lists the data the register contains “in particular”, and the generator has a column for each:
- the name of the person complaining and the date the complaint was received;
- details of the goods, a short description of the defect and what was requested;
- the date the receipt of the complaint was confirmed;
- the decision in the reply and the date it was sent;
- the agreed time for resolving it that the consumer accepted;
- how and when the complaint was resolved;
- information on any extension of the time to resolve it.
The row number in the register is the number you give the customer on receipt (para. 7). The register is kept for at least two years from the date of the complaint (para. 6). It holds customers’ personal data, so only staff who handle complaints should have access, and the data should be deleted after that period.
The reply: three common mistakes
The seller must reply “without delay, and at the latest within eight days of receiving the complaint, in writing or electronically” (Article 63(9)). The reply must include the decision on whether the complaint is accepted, the reasons if it is not, a response to what the customer asked for, and a specific proposal for how and when the complaint will be resolved.
- The three-day sentence is missing. The law requires the reply to tell the customer explicitly that they must answer within three days, that silence counts as disagreement, and that the time to resolve the complaint is paused until they answer (para. 10). The generator adds this sentence for you.
- Rejecting without out-of-court resolution. When you reject a complaint, you must tell the customer about out-of-court dispute resolution and the competent bodies (para. 12). The list of bodies is kept and published by the ministry responsible for consumer protection (Article 172), so name a body from that list in your reply.
- A deadline longer than the law allows. A complaint must be resolved within 15 days of submission, or 30 days for technical goods and furniture. The time can be extended only once, for objective reasons and with the customer’s consent, and the extension goes in the register (para. 11). The generator warns you if the proposed date is too late.
If you resolve an oral complaint on the spot, the way the customer asked, no confirmation or written reply is needed (para. 14). Record it in the register anyway, so you have a trail. Which rights customers have, and how they choose between repair, replacement, a price reduction and a refund, is covered in our guide to product complaints in Serbia.
Fines
For a seller who does not display the notice, has no authorised person, keeps no register, issues no confirmation, or fails to reply or resolve the complaint in time, the fines are (Article 210):
| Who | Fine |
|---|---|
| Company | RSD 200,000 |
| Sole trader | RSD 100,000 |
| Responsible person in a company | RSD 50,000 |
An inspector can also order the trader to fix the problem (Article 207).
For web shops: complaints on your site
- A “Complaints” page with the text from the generator, linked from the footer and from your terms of sale. The website duty applies to distance sales, but if your site only has contact details, the page does no harm.
- An email address or form for complaints that immediately sends the customer a confirmation with the complaint number. That meets the duty in para. 7 as soon as the customer submits the form.
- An electronic register. When complaints arrive by email, a table is more practical than a book: deadlines are easy to follow and the data is easy to delete after two years.
- Refunds come with a “Promet refundacija” fiscal receipt, as we explain in our guide to web shop fiscalization in Serbia. Withdrawing from an online purchase within 14 days is not a complaint and has its own rules, covered in returning goods bought online.
We set up complaints pages, forms with automatic confirmation and terms of sale as part of e-commerce development, and on existing sites as part of website maintenance.
Before December: a quick check
- Does the notice in your shop or on your site still mention the 2021 law or old contact details? Replace it.
- Is someone authorised to receive complaints on every shift, including holidays if you are open?
- Does your register have every column from Article 63(8)?
- Does your reply template include the sentence about the three days to answer?
- Do your staff know that the 8-day deadline also runs over weekends and holidays?
Note: This article is a practical guide, not legal advice. Quotes are from the Consumer Protection Act (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 35/2026), Articles 27, 63, 172, 173, 207 and 210, in our translation. The law sets no template for the notice or the register, so the documents from the generator are a proposal that contains everything the law requires. Checked on 3 November 2026.
FAQ: complaints notice in Serbia
Is a notice on how and where complaints are received mandatory in Serbia?
Yes. Article 63(4) of the Consumer Protection Act requires every trader to display it clearly at the point of sale, and for distance sales also on the website. The fine is RSD 100,000 for a sole trader and RSD 200,000 for a company.
What must a complaints notice say?
How and where a customer can make a complaint: in person at the point of sale, by phone, in writing and electronically, and that they should show the receipt or other proof of purchase. The law sets no template, but it also requires a person authorised to receive complaints to be present throughout opening hours.
Do I have to buy a complaints book?
No. The register is kept as a bound book or in electronic form, with the data from Article 63(8). You can print and bind the pages from our generator or keep a table in Excel.
How long must the complaints register be kept?
At least two years from the date the complaint was submitted.
How quickly must a seller reply to a complaint?
Within 8 days of receiving it at the latest, in writing or electronically. The complaint must be resolved within 15 days of submission, or 30 days for technical goods and furniture.
Is there an official PDF template for the complaints notice?
No. The law says what the trader must provide, not what the notice must look like. The generator in this article creates a notice with everything the law mentions, to print on A4 or save as PDF.
Source: Consumer Protection Act (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 35/2026).
