Shopping in San Marino

San Marino offers several ways to shop. The historic centre has hundreds of shops in its contrade, including local ceramics, handicrafts, objects made from iron, wood and precious metals, stamps and coins. Outside the historic centre, shopping arcades, centri commerciali and the San Marino Outlet Experience sell clothing, shoes, sports goods, accessories, optical products, electronics, computers, phones, stationery, toys, tobacco, perfumes and jewellery. Atlante Shopping Center in Dogana has five levels, around 15,000 square metres of shops and services, and about 600 parking spaces. Borgo Maggiore holds an everyday-goods market on Sundays from 06:00 to 13:00, and an antiques market on the third Sunday and Monday of the relevant month. Markets include food and agricultural products, household and personal care goods, clothing, technology, gifts and locally made products. The Marchio di Origine e Tipicità and Terra di San Marino identify eligible local or regional products. Direct agricultural sales are permitted at the producer's own premises or at authorised markets. Mobile trading, called commercio ambulante, requires an authorised fixed or travelling stand; ordinary access to public shops and markets does not require a separate consumer permit. A shop should display the final price for the item or quantity and, where relevant, the price per kilogram, litre, metre or cubic metre. Information should be available in Italian and should cover origin or processing location, materials, risks and instructions for use. Unpackaged goods sold by weight must be measured by net weight. Some special products may be sold with a catalogue containing the required information. San Marino uses the imposta monofase for imports by businesses rather than a normal consumer VAT line, so the final shop price, delivery charges, return costs and any SMaC Card fee should be checked together. Online, telephone and mail-order sales are permitted, as are sales through automated systems. The seller should identify its name, Codice operatore, registered seat, contact details, complaint channels, total price including or excluding indirect tax, delivery charges, shipping location and terms that can be saved. Check the seller's identity, seat, contact details, shipping conditions, complete price and terms before paying. For distance purchases, including online purchases, the withdrawal period is generally at least 14 days. For goods it starts on delivery; for services it starts when the contract is concluded. After declaring withdrawal, the buyer generally has another 14 days to return the goods. The seller must normally refund the purchase price and standard delivery charge within 14 days, while direct return costs normally remain with the buyer. Legal exceptions apply, including for certain personalised, quickly perishable or fully performed services. For faulty goods, the seller is liable for conformity for two years from delivery. The buyer should notify the seller within two months after discovering the defect. A defect appearing within the first six months is generally presumed to have existed when the goods were delivered unless the nature of the goods or defect indicates otherwise. The seller must normally provide repair or replacement without charge; a price reduction or cancellation may follow when those remedies are unavailable or unsuccessful. For used goods, the contractual liability period may be reduced to at least six months and, without that reduction, is at least one year. Start a complaint with the seller. Serious or general violations can be reported to the Autorità di vigilanza dei consumatori or the Ufficio Attività Economiche (UAE), which can receive reports, inspect businesses, impose sanctions and monitor prices. Payments are made in euros. SEPA transfers between San Marino and participating SEPA countries normally use an IBAN and BIC and generally arrive within one working day. A SEPA Direct Debit CORE payment can usually be refunded within eight weeks when it was authorised. Card, electronic-money and other payment-service providers are regulated by the Banca Centrale della Repubblica di San Marino (BCSM), but each shop decides which methods it accepts. The SMaC Card is not accepted universally. Private citizens can generally obtain it from age 16 for EUR 10; students aged 14 to 16 may have special access for EUR 5. Participating merchants offer discounts of around 2% to 10%, credited as a later payment discount, and purchases above EUR 70 require the card PIN. Promotional sales are subject to specific limits: promotions generally exclude the 15 days before Christmas and Easter, standard discounts may not exceed 50%, sales periods run from 1 January to 1 March and from 1 July to 1 September, liquidation sales usually last no more than four weeks or eight weeks for closure or transfer of a business, and sottocosto sales last ten days and may occur no more than four times a year. Special rules apply to food, drugstore goods and defective products. Sustainability options are developing unevenly. The local origin labels, direct purchase from agricultural producers and the SMaC Centro di Raccolta in San Giovanni provide specific alternatives, but no comprehensive reuse or eco-shopping system has been verified across San Marino. Regulation 101/2025 introduces due-diligence duties for businesses dealing with covered commodities and products from 30 December 2026, with micro and small businesses covered from 30 June 2027. These duties concern businesses and supply chains rather than ordinary shopping steps.