The complaints that reach a hotel, a retailer, a distributor or a service company in Montenegro fall into three legal categories that its staff usually treat as one. A guest who complains about a room, a buyer who rejects a delivery and a former customer who asks what data the company holds each start a different clock before a different body. The Consumer Protection Law gives the trader eight days to answer a consumer's complaint in writing, with a position and a proposal, and makes it keep a complaint register and a person available to receive complaints. The Law on Obligations makes a business buyer notify defects without delay and lets the seller escape after six months, but also lets the buyer who notified in time choose between repair, replacement, price reduction and termination. The Data Protection Law gives a company fifteen days to tell a person whether it processes their data and fifteen days to correct or delete it, with a complaint to the Agency and fines behind it. I set out the three regimes from the statutes and turn them into an answering procedure a company can run, because in my experience the dispute is rarely about the defect and almost always about who answered when.
Sources, checked 11 September 2026. Consumer Protection Law (Official Gazette of Montenegro 2/14, 6/14, 43/15, 70/17), Articles 25 to 27 and 49; Law on Obligations (47/08 to 94/26), Articles 269, 275, 383 and 489 to 500; Personal Data Protection Law (79/08, 70/09, 44/12, 22/17, 77/24), Articles 43 to 48 and 74; Law on Deadlines for Settlement of Monetary Obligations (113/2024), Article 10.
Consumers: eight days, in writing, with a proposal
Article 25 of the Consumer Protection Law gives the consumer the right to complain to the trader from whom the product was bought, for non-conformity with the contract, in connection with a warranty, about the invoice, and for similar reasons; the purchase is proven by the receipt, the contract, the warranty card or other suitable evidence; the complaint is made on paper or another durable medium available to the consumer; the trader must display in the shop, or otherwise tell the consumer at contracting, how and where complaints are made, and bears the burden of proving it did; it must keep a register of complaints for at least two years with the complainant, date, product, subject and demand and the date of the confirmation of receipt, in a bound book with numbered pages or electronically; and it must have a person authorised to receive complaints present at the place of complaint during working hours. Article 26 sets the consumer's deadlines: for non-conformity, the periods of Article 49; for a warranty, the period in the warranty card; for the invoice, at once and at the latest eight days from payment, and for services fifteen days from receipt of the invoice. Article 27 sets the trader's: it must answer the consumer without delay and at the latest within eight days of receipt of the complaint, in writing, on paper or another durable medium, stating its position on the demand and proposing a solution; where the complaint is not resolved without delay, it must issue a written confirmation of receipt containing the register data and the date; and it bears the burden of proving that it did. Under Article 49 the trader is liable for non-conformity for two years from the passing of risk, a non-conformity appearing within six months is presumed to have existed at delivery, a shorter period of at least one year may be agreed for second-hand goods, the consumer must notify the trader within ninety days of discovering the non-conformity and before the two years end, and the rights of a consumer who notified in time are extinguished two years after the notice was sent unless the trader's fraud prevented their exercise.
Business customers: without delay, six months, and the four remedies
Between companies the Law on Obligations governs. Under Article 489 the buyer must inspect the goods in the usual manner, or have them inspected, as soon as the ordinary course of business allows, and must notify visible defects within eight days, and in commercial contracts without delay, or lose its rights; where the inspection is carried out in the presence of both parties, objections are made at once; where the goods are shipped on without transhipment and the seller knew of that possibility, the inspection may be deferred to the new destination and the buyer notifies as soon as it could learn of the defects from its own customers. Under Article 490 a hidden defect must be notified within eight days of discovery, in commercial contracts without delay, and the seller is not liable for defects appearing more than six months after delivery unless a longer period was agreed; Article 491 restarts those periods after repair or replacement. Under Article 492 the notice must describe the defect and invite the seller to inspect, and a timely notice sent by registered letter, telegram or another reliable means counts as given even if it arrives late or not at all. Under Article 493 the buyer keeps its rights despite a late inspection or notice, and beyond six months, where the seller knew or could not have been unaware of the defect or acknowledged it, and under Article 494 the parties may limit or exclude the seller's liability for defects, except where the seller knew of the defect and did not disclose it or imposed the clause through a monopoly position. A buyer who notified in time may under Article 496 demand cure by repair or replacement, demand a price reduction or declare the contract terminated, with damages in each case and the seller bearing the costs of cure; under Articles 497 to 499 termination requires an additional period unless the seller has said it will not perform, and the contract terminates by law if the period passes unperformed unless the buyer promptly keeps it alive; under Article 500 partial defects allow partial termination unless the goods form a whole. Claims between companies from commercial contracts are time-barred three years from the breach under Article 383, and an undisputed monetary claim can be enforced through a public enforcement officer within ninety days under Article 10 of the late payment law, which is why a disputed invoice must be disputed in writing and not merely left unpaid.
| Demand | Rule | Clock | Where it goes next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer complaint about goods, a warranty or an invoice | Written answer with position and proposal; written confirmation of receipt if not resolved at once; register kept two years | Eight days from receipt | Market inspection; court |
| Consumer non-conformity claim | Trader liable two years; six-month presumption; consumer notifies within ninety days of discovery | Two years from passing of risk | Court |
| Defect notified by a business buyer | Visible defects without delay in commercial contracts; hidden defects without delay on discovery; seller not liable after six months unless agreed | Days, not weeks | Commercial court; three-year limitation |
| Notice content from a business buyer | Describe the defect and invite inspection; registered letter or reliable means | With the notice | Evidence in the dispute |
| Data subject asks whether data are processed | Written notice with the listed information, understandable | Fifteen days from the request | Protection request to the Agency, decided within sixty days |
| Data subject asks for correction or deletion | Correct, complete or delete; notify the person and recipients within eight days | Fifteen days from the request | Agency; fines of 500 to 20,000 euros for a legal person |
| Disputed invoice from a business customer | No statutory deemed acceptance; dispute in writing to avoid enforcement as an undisputed claim | Before the due date | Enforcement officer within ninety days if undisputed |
Data subjects: fifteen days and a written notice
Under Article 43 of the Personal Data Protection Law the controller must, on a written request from the person or their representative and after verifying identity, deliver within fifteen days of the request a written and understandable notice of whether personal data relating to the person are processed and, if they are, the controller's name and address, the processor's on express demand, the content of the data, the purpose and legal basis of the processing, the source, the third parties and users, and the manner of any automated processing. Under Article 44 the controller must, on a written request and within fifteen days, complete or correct incomplete or inaccurate data and delete inaccurate data, and delete data whose processing is unlawful; it must notify the person and any third party or user of the correction or deletion within eight days unless that proves impossible; and where it fails to act or refuses, the person may complain to the controller or seek protection from the supervisory authority. Article 45 allows limits on those rights only where a special law requires them for defence, security, criminal prosecution, economic or financial interests or the rights of others; Article 46 puts the costs on the controller; Article 47 lets the person file a request for protection of rights with the Agency, which must decide within sixty days and may ban further processing in the meantime, with an administrative dispute against its decision; and Article 48 makes the controller liable in damages under the general rules. Article 74 fines a legal person between 500 and 20,000 euros for, among other things, failing to deliver the notice within fifteen days, failing to correct or delete within fifteen days, and failing to notify within eight days. A replacement law aligned with the European regime is before Parliament as a government bill of August 2026, with amendments providing that it would apply six months after entry into force; until it is adopted and applies, these are the deadlines.
What the answer should contain
A consumer's complaint is answered within eight days, in writing, on paper or a durable medium, with the company's position on the demand and a concrete proposal, whether repair, replacement, a reduction, a refund or a reasoned refusal, and the complaint is entered in the register with the date of the confirmation of receipt; a company that answers by telephone or that answers on day nine has breached Article 27 whatever the merits. A business buyer's defect notice is answered by asking for the inspection under Article 492, by recording the dates of delivery, discovery and notice against Articles 489 and 490, and by stating whether the seller accepts cure, a reduction or nothing, without admitting the defect; a business seller's silence is not acceptance, but a business buyer's silence for six months is the end of the claim. A data subject's request is answered within fifteen days, in writing, in understandable language, with the information Article 43 lists, or by carrying out the correction or deletion Article 44 requires and notifying the person and the recipients within eight days. In each case the answer is signed by a person with authority, states the position without conceding liability, and travels by a channel that proves the date. Whose signature binds the company is on the signing authority page.
Guests and services
A hotel or restaurant guest is a consumer, and a complaint about a room, a meal or a service falls under Articles 25 to 27 like a complaint about goods: the guest complains on paper or a durable medium, the operator answers within eight days in writing with a position and a proposal, and the operator keeps the register and the authorised person at the reception. A service complaint about the invoice must be made within fifteen days of its receipt under Article 26. Where the guest is a company, for a conference or a group booking, the Law on Obligations governs instead, and the answer follows the business rules above. Sector rules for hospitality, travel and tourism services add their own obligations, which this page does not cover.
Building the procedure
A company needs one intake and three tracks. Every complaint is logged on the day of receipt with its category and the identity of the complainant. Consumer complaints go to the authorised person, who answers in writing within eight days, issues the confirmation of receipt where the matter is not closed at once, and keeps the register. Business defect notices go to the person who holds the delivery records, who checks the dates first and the goods second. Data requests go to the person responsible for data protection with a fifteen-day deadline counted from receipt. Answers leave by e-mail with acknowledgement, by registered letter or by another means that proves the date. The procedure is the company's evidence before the market inspection, the Agency and the court that it answered in time, and it is the document a foreign owner asks for first when a dispute reaches the board.
When the complaint becomes a dispute
A consumer dispute goes to the market inspection for the statutory breaches and to the court for the claim; the company's file is the register, the confirmation of receipt and the eight-day answer. A data dispute goes to the Agency, which decides within sixty days, and then to the administrative court. A business dispute goes to the commercial court, where the timing of the notice under Articles 489 and 490 decides most cases before the defect is examined; the liability rules behind the claim are on the limitation of liability page, the terms the customer is bound by on the standard terms page, the collection of the company's own invoices on the late payment page, and the time limits on the limitation periods page.
Whose side we are on, and how we are paid
The reception answers the guest with an apology by telephone and nothing in writing, and the market inspection reads the empty register. The warehouse rejects the delivery three weeks after it arrived and the seller points to Article 489. The marketing team receives a deletion request and forwards it to the group after a month. None of them is paid to tell you, before the complaint arrives, that the eight days are counted from receipt and require writing, that a business buyer's rights depend on days, or that the fifteen-day data deadline carries a fine.
We take no commission or referral fee from customers, suppliers, inspectors or intermediaries, in any form, on any file. The fee you pay us is our only income from your matter, and it does not depend on how many complaints arrive or how they end. Because our position does not move with the outcome, telling a company that its standard reply breaches Article 27, or that its buyer's notice came too late to matter, costs us nothing to say.
One boundary, stated plainly. We are lawyers, not licensed investment advisers and not a customer service outsourcer. We do not answer your customers for you. What we protect is the Montenegrin legal position: the right answer within the right days, through a channel that proves it, recorded where the law requires, and a file that reads well before the inspection, the Agency or the court. The legal function these pages belong to is described on the outsourced legal department page.
Before the next complaint arrives
Send us your current complaint, defect notice and data request procedures, your standard replies, the complaint register and the last three complaints you found hard to answer. We will tell you where the procedures miss a statutory deadline or concede a point, what the replies should say, and who should sign them. Our corporate work in Montenegro is described on the Montenegro lawyer page.
What this page does not settle
Sector rules for hospitality, travel and package tours, product safety and recalls, distance selling and the right of withdrawal, telecommunications and utilities complaints, alternative dispute resolution bodies, cross-border data transfers, the content of the pending data protection bill and the conduct of litigation are separate subjects. Whether a particular defect was visible or hidden, and when it was discovered, is decided on the facts.
