Estonia has received a draft law from the Ministry of Justice to tighten competition oversight, becoming the last country in the European Union to transposing the European directive. Cartel and competition violations will be treated as administrative procedures under the new law. The Estonian Competition Authority is working on a single compact toolkit to make the procedure more straightforward for those who wilfully violate rules and more efficient for competition authorities. The new law also requires uniform pricing for various products in retail chains and suspected misuse of a monopolistic position in the market.
Rimi Estonia, a company that has experience with the Eurodirective, is willing to cooperate with the competition authority. The implementation of the Eurodirective in Estonia was delayed due to opposition from the Bar Association. Under the new draft, businesses can be punished as much as 10% of their annual revenue in administrative processes. The draft bill has been fine-tuned, and Estonia will be fined €600 per day from February 4th 2021 onwards for failing to implement a directive on time. The final amount will be determined when the Court of Justice of the European Union issues its decision.
