Consumer Protection system in Estonia

The starting point for consumer protection is that the consumer is entitled to obtain state protection in order to exercise his statutory rights provided by the Consumer Protection Act and other legislation. At that 'consumer' means a person to whom goods or services are offered or who acquires or uses goods or services for purposes not related to his/her business or professional activities.

In Estonia consumer can get help in:

1. Non-governmental Consumer Associations
A consumer association is a voluntary association of persons the objective of the activities of which is to protect and promote the interests and rights of consumers. A consumer association has the right to:

• advise and assist consumers;
• represent a consumer in court and other state authorities in the settlement of disputes with traders or producers;
• protect the collective interests of consumers.

Estonian Consumers Union (www.tarbijakaitse.ee) incorporates nine regional consumer associations, which have been established in larger cities and counties (Tallinn, Tartu, Narva, Rakvere, Valga, Jõgeva county, Järva county, Valga county and Viljandi county). In addition to them there exist Information and Advisory centres in Tallinn and Tartu. Also, there are some more consumer associations (Ugandi, Saare county and Pärnu county associations), which are not members of the Consumers Union.


2. Consumer Protection at Local Government Level

Local governments are required to provide advice and assistance to consumers with regard to issues which are connected with services organized by the local governments pursuant to law.

3. State Consumer Protection in the form of the Consumer Protection Board (CPB)

The CPB is a national authority within the area of government of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the main task of which is to protect the legitimate rights of consumers and to represent their interests. CPB has a dozen regional county offices, which carry out the consumer protection activities at the local level.
 

The three most important functions of the Consumer Protection Board are as follows:

• To supervise the consumer market - the Consumer Protection Board is required to provide supervision over compliance with approximately 60 different legal acts. The Consumer Protection Board works in close co-operation with other supervisory authorities and international organisations that conduct market supervision. Among other activities it is important to highlight the following supervision activities carried out by CPB: supervision of product and service safety, supervision of advertising and unfair commercial practises, product labelling, price publication, etc and also the protection of the consumers economic interests. The Board is entitled to impose administrative fines and prescriptive orders in case of violations of the CPA and other regulations.
• To settle consumer complaints in purpose to carry out the out-of-court settlement and act as the primary mediator between traders and consumers.The Board has a right to impose administrative sanctions, but only in order to protect consumers' collective interests, not in cases where a trader refuses to rectify in individual complaints.
  Among other complaint areas CPB is also the NEB under the Regulation 261/2004 concerning the rights of air passengers.
• To inform and advise consumers -  including the advising, informing and educating of consumers.

From 2005 there is created the European Consumer Centre of Estonia, which works within the Consumer Protection Board. ECC Estonia provides services to consumers related to their cross-border purchases or consumer rights in European Union.
 

The CPB administers the Consumer Complaints Committee, which is an independent institution and settles disputes between consumers and traders - working as the ADR body. The committee is competent to settle disputes arising from contracts between consumers and traders if the parties have not been able to settle the disputes by agreement and if the value of the disputed goods or services is at least 300 EEK (ca 20 EUR).