About us » Annual reports » Summary 2006

The Consumer Protection Board of Estonia was established in 1994 with the purpose of protecting and representing the rights and interests of consumers in accordance with legislation. The Consumer Protection Board is a government authority within the area of government of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication, which implements consumer protection at national level.

As stipulated in the Consumer Protection Act of Estonia, the Consumer Protection Board deals with the concerns of a single consumer, observing the principles of UN and European Union consumer protection policies.

In Estonia, the Consumer Protection Act has been enforced to ensure consumer rights, stipulating the following fundamental rights to:
1) demand and obtain goods and services which meet the requirements, are harmless to the life, health and property of the consumers, and are not prohibited from being owned or used;
2) obtain necessary and truthful information on the goods and services offered in order to make a conscious choice, and to obtain timely information on any risks relating to the goods or services;
3) obtain information on consumer law and other issues relating to consumption;
4) obtain advice and assistance if their rights are violated;
5) demand compensation for any patrimonial or non-patrimonial damage caused to them;
6) request that their interests be taken into account and that they be represented through consumer federations and associations in the decision-making process on consumer policy issues.
Estonian consumer protection policy is largely based on conflict-avoiding principles, which aim is to improve the awareness of both the consumers and traders, therefore contributing to the operating of the consumer market and the implementation of good trading practice.

Main tasks of the Board

The main tasks of the Consumer Protection Board in protecting the interests of consumers may be divided into three larger categories:

Exercising market supervision in the consumer market.
Today, 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 the protection of the consumers economic interests.

1. Increasing the awareness of consumers, which includes the advising and educating of consumers.

2. The settlement of consumer complaints in purpose to carry out the out-of-court settlement and act as the primary mediator between traders and consumers.

For the out-of-court settlement of consumer complaints is also created the Consumer Complaints Committee, which is an independent institution operating at the Estonian Consumer Protection Board. The Committee was created in 2004 and the principles of the Committee are set in the renewed Consumer Protection Act, which was forced in 2004.

The Committee functions as the ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution Body) and is charged with settling disputes arising from contracts between consumers and traders, when one of the parties is a trader registered in Estonia and the other party is a consumer as an individual who has purchased goods or services for private consumption.

The resolutions of the Committee are not binding for the parties. If parties are not satisfied with the resolution, they can turn to court.

For settling of consumers’ cross-border complaints and for provision of information in reference to the cross-border purchases is established the European Consumer Centre of Estonia, which works as an independent department of the Consumer Protection Board. The 2006 was the second year of business for the European Consumer Centre of Estonia. The Centre is also a member of the European Consumer Centres Network. In case of need the complaints handled in the ECC will be forwarded for the further settlement to the Consumer Protection Board or to the Consumer Complaint Committee.

Cooperation with other stakeholders

The Board is according to the Product Safety Act the official contact point in Estonia concerning rapid exchange of information on dangerous goods between EU countries. Notices about dangerous products were interchanged with RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) and RAPEX (Rapid Exchange System).

The Board is according to the EC Regulation no 2006/2004 (the regulation on consumer protection cooperation) the Single Liaison Office and the Competent Authority on 12 different EU legislative acts (named in the annex of the Regulation) in Estonia.

CPB is the member of two networks that deal with product safety matters - PROSAFE and Eurosafe (former ECOSA). In 2006 PROSAFE applied for joint project from EU Commission “Best Practices of Market Surveillance”, and CPB is one of 18 Member States who decided participate in this project that started in 2006 and will last for 3 years.

The Board is also a member of ICPEN (International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network) since 2002 and participates actively in the activities of this international enforcement bodies network.

Between Estonian Consumer Protection Board, Estonian Technical Inspectorate, Latvian Consumer Rights Protection Centre, Lithuanian State Non-Food Products Inspectorate and Consumer Rights Protection Authority of the Republic of Lithuania is concluded The Baltic Cooperation Agreement. The purpose of this agreement is to promote and improve cooperation between the institutions, which are working at the field of consumer protection and market surveillance in three Baltic republics.


Conclusions from 2006

As of 1st of January 2006, the personnel of the Consumer Protection Board consisted still of 62 employees, taking into account 2 employees of the European Consumer Centre of Estonia. The budget of 2006 amounted 12,04 mln EEK.

The year 2006 was a successful year for Consumer Protection Board. The Board continued to be actively engaged in market supervision and consultation of consumers. Additionally to the activities foreseen in the annual working plan for 2006, many activities of the Board were initiated on the basis of complaints received from the consumers. In comparison with earlier years, one can admit that by the help of the Board, the situation on Estonian consumer market has improved significantly.

Summary 2006