Consumer complaint in Belgium: plainte and ombudsmen

Quick answer

A complaint (plainte) is your dated, written request asking a company in Belgium to fix a problem with goods, a service or a bill. Belgian law sets no reply deadline: the company must answer as soon as possible (art. XVI.3 CDE), so set your own, such as 15 days from receipt. If the company does not solve it, turn to the sector ombudsman or the Service de Médiation pour le Consommateur: free, not binding, and best used within a year of your complaint. Before court, a mise en demeure (formal notice, art. 5.231 C. civ.) states clearly what you demand and by when. No registered letter is required for either.

This guide covers consumer complaints to companies in Belgium and the out-of-court bodies that deal with them. It is general information, not legal advice. To end a subscription, see cancelling a contract in Belgium; to demand money that is already due, see payment demands in Belgium. Insurance and tenancies have their own guides: cancelling insurance in Belgium and tenant letters in Belgium. Belgian law imposes no language on a private letter (art. 30 of the Constitution), so the French examples below are valid in Flanders too, although a Flemish company may answer in Dutch.

What to put in your plainte

A company must publish the phone number and email address of its complaints service, if it has one (art. XVI.2 CDE, the Code de droit économique): send your complaint there. The law prescribes no form. Give your customer, contract, order or invoice number, the date of purchase or delivery, the facts in order, earlier contacts with their reference numbers, and exactly what you want: a repair, a replacement, a corrected bill, a refund of a stated amount or an explanation. Enclose copies, never originals. Set a deadline counted from receipt, because a letter takes effect when it reaches the company (art. 1.5 C. civ.). If the dispute is not solved within a reasonable time, the company must tell you, on paper or another durable medium, which out-of-court body it uses (art. XVI.4, § 3 CDE). Keep the tone factual: an ombudsman may refuse a frivolous, vexatious or defamatory complaint.

Add your address, the company’s complaints address and the date, replace every placeholder and keep the bracketed sentence on faulty goods only if it applies.

Objet : Plainte — [numéro de client, de commande ou de contrat]

Madame, Monsieur,

Je vous adresse la présente plainte au sujet de [produit, service ou facture] ([numéro de commande ou de facture], [date d’achat ou de livraison]).

Le [date], [description brève et objective des faits]. J’ai signalé ce problème le [date] par [moyen utilisé] (référence [numéro de dossier, le cas échéant]), sans qu’il soit résolu. [Pour un bien défectueux : ce défaut de conformité est apparu dans les deux ans suivant la livraison et je vous le signale dans les deux mois de sa découverte, conformément à l’article 1649quater de l’ancien Code civil.]

Je vous demande [demande précise : par exemple la réparation ou le remplacement du produit, la correction de la facture ou le remboursement de [montant] euros]. Je joins une copie des pièces suivantes : [liste].

Je vous remercie de me répondre par écrit dans un délai de quinze jours à compter de la réception de la présente. À défaut de solution, je vous prie de m’indiquer l’entité de règlement extrajudiciaire des litiges à laquelle vous faites appel, conformément à l’article XVI.4 du Code de droit économique.

Veuillez agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l’expression de mes salutations distinguées. [Prénom et nom] [Adresse]

Faulty goods: the legal guarantee

For goods bought from a business, the seller is liable for any lack of conformity that existed at delivery and appears within two years (art. 1649quater of the old Civil Code, ancien Code civil); a defect that appears within those two years is presumed to have existed at delivery. You must tell the seller within two months of discovering the defect, and a court action is time-barred one year after discovery; both periods are suspended during a repair or replacement and while you negotiate. For second-hand goods, the contract can shorten the guarantee to no less than one year. Clauses that exclude or reduce these rights before you report a defect are void (art. 1649octies).

Ask first for repair or replacement, free of charge, within a reasonable time and without major inconvenience. If that fails, you can ask for a proportionate price reduction or end the contract, but not for a minor defect (art. 1649quinquies). A law published in the Moniteur belge on 23 September 2026 adds, from the tenth day after publication, a one-time extension of one year when you choose repair, and requires the seller to tell you that you can choose between repair and replacement. From 1 September 2027, these rules move to Book 7 of the Civil Code; for current disputes, cite the old articles.

Escalate to an ombudsman (médiation)

These bodies are free for consumers, and their outcomes are recommendations or opinions, not binding decisions; Ombudsfin’s opinions bind only on the basic banking service. A telecom or postal operator that neither follows a recommendation nor explains why within 20 working days, plus 20 more after a reminder, becomes bound to carry it out for your individual compensation (art. 43bis and 43ter de la loi du 21 mars 1991). Most bodies may refuse a case raised with the company more than a year earlier, so escalate well within 12 months of your first written complaint.

The Service de Médiation pour le Consommateur (SMC) is the general entry point: write to it by letter, email, its online form or in person, at North Gate II, Boulevard du Roi Albert II 8 boîte 1, 1000 Bruxelles. A complete file gives the names and addresses of both parties, a short, clear account of the facts, copies of documents and a statement that you have already tried to settle the dispute. You cannot choose the body: the SMC sends your case to the competent one. Within three weeks, it says whether it will handle your case, and it gives an outcome within 90 calendar days, extendable once (art. XVI.16 and XVI.17 CDE). While it handles a complete request, limitation periods are suspended and the company must suspend debt collection (art. XVI.18). Going to court ends the procedure. The SMC handles consumers living abroad against companies established in Belgium, but not foreign companies without a Belgian establishment.

ConsumerConnect, run by SPF Économie, takes reports of breaches of consumer law, but its inspectors do not solve individual disputes. The EU Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform has closed: complaints could no longer be filed from 20 March 2025, so do not use it.

Send a mise en demeure before going to court

If the company does not answer or refuses, a mise en demeure (formal notice) is the usual last step before a claim: a unilateral act that tells the company, clearly and unequivocally, what you demand (art. 5.231 C. civ.). It must generally come before you ask a court for performance, damages, termination or a price reduction; the law, the contract or good faith may require you to give a reasonable period. None is needed where it would serve no purpose, for example if the company has said it will not perform (art. 5.233). You can also end a contract without going to court by written notification stating the breaches, at your own risk (art. 5.93). For contracts concluded before 1 January 2023, the old Civil Code may still apply.

The juge de paix (justice of the peace) hears claims of up to €5,000 (art. 590 C. jud.). Before suing, you can ask that court, even orally, to summon the company to a free conciliation hearing; a request that claims a right counts as a mise en demeure and suspends limitation for one month (art. 731/1 and 732 C. jud.). For a cross-border claim of up to €5,000, there is the European Small Claims Procedure (Regulation (EC) No 861/2007).

Objet : Mise en demeure — [numéro de client, de commande ou de contrat]

Madame, Monsieur,

Le [date], je vous ai adressé par [moyen utilisé] une plainte relative à [objet], dont je joins une copie. [Je n’ai reçu aucune réponse. / Votre réponse du [date] ne règle pas [point précis].]

Par la présente, je vous mets en demeure, au sens de l’article 5.231 du Code civil, de [demande précise : par exemple réparer ou remplacer le produit, corriger la facture n° [numéro] ou me rembourser [montant] euros sur le compte [IBAN]] dans un délai de quinze jours à compter de la réception de la présente.

À défaut, je me réserve le droit de saisir [service de médiation compétent, par exemple le Service de Médiation pour le Consommateur] ou le juge de paix.

Veuillez agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l’expression de mes salutations distinguées. [Prénom et nom] [Adresse]

Post your letter and keep evidence

Upload your final PDF or write the letter in MaisonMail, and add copies of your evidence. Use the complaints address the company publishes. The recipient address determines the destination; available services, estimated delivery and the final price appear before payment. Belgian law does not require a lettre recommandée (registered letter) for a complaint, a mise en demeure or an ombudsman request, so a standard or tracked letter is valid; follow your contract if it requires registered post for a notice. Tracking shows that an item arrived, not what the envelope contained: to have a record of what you sent, also send the same text by email, or use registered post or a bailiff for a high-value dispute. Allow time for delivery, since your deadline runs from receipt. Keep a copy of the exact letter and attachments.