Summary: You Must Pay €286,000 for the Company Register Database
| Request sent to | Ministry of Justice |
| Outcome of request | Information refused. |
| Time taken to respond | 1 day. |
| Reason for refusal | Must pay for access. Another law overrides FOI law. |
The request was sent on 4 November 2013 to the Ministry of Justice by Access Info and its partner, Mikk Salu. They replied the day after and asked us to provide more details about the information we were requesting, and we were informed that we could become a contractual user if we wanted to buy all the data in the register at a monthly fee of 9,58€.
On 5 November 2013 Access Info responded, reminding the Ministry of Justice that we were seeking access to the whole database using the right of access to information and that therefore we wanted the information for free.
On 7 November we were asked if we were interested only in general data of companies or if we were also interested in accessing annual reports and articles of association. Access Info clarified on the same day, stating that we were seeking a copy of the entire database held by the Company Register.
The response received on 7 November contained data on the number of entities registered in Estonia and included a new suggestion to become a contractual user in order to access the register, as this allows you to make queries in XML format.
On 16 November we were told that it was not possible to grant us free access to the data as the prices and services of e-Business Register are prescribed with Regulation No. 55 of the Minister of Justice from 30.11.1998, and that requires the payment of a fee.
Accessing the Estonian Company Register
| Information available (for free) | Reviewing of a company’s B-card data, general data and tax arrears data. You can verify any prohibitions or restrictions on businesses and entrepreneurs registered in Estonia. |
| Provision for public access | You can search through the data of all registered companies using the online search, though you have to know what you are looking for asyou cannot do a blank search. Only government institutions, notaries or local authorities can access the data for free. The full price list for accessing the company register can be found here: http://www.rik.ee/en/e-business-registry/service-fee-rates |
| Cost per record | 2 euros/record |
| Cost for whole database | Approximately 286,000 euros. There are over 143000 trading companies, 32600 sole traders, 509 branches of foreign countries, more than 29000 non-profit associations and 798 foundations, including entities in bankruptcy and liquidation in the Estonian register. Each extract would cost 2€ per entity but if we wanted to make an extract in.csv format, there will be extra fee of 19,81€+VAT /per hour for additional processing of data. There is a monthly fee of €9,58 for contractual users. |
Additional Information:
Estonia´s Right to Information (RTI) Rating (Click here)
Estonia´s Public Information Act (Click here)
Estonia’s company register (Click here)