A Basic Account Is a Right With a Condition on It: You Must Show a Justified Interest, and the Bank Has Ten Business Days
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Luxembourg on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
172 exceptions recorded across 63 countries · none match Luxembourg to Estonia · Opening a bank account
Estonia transposed the Payment Accounts Directive into the law of obligations rather than into banking law, and in July 2025 it rewrote the transposition. Section 710-1(2) of the Võlaõigusseadus now obliges a credit institution to provide basic payment services to a consumer lawfully residing in the European Union and to conclude a basic payment service contract where the consumer has a justified interest - a condition that was not there before - and to make the services usable through several channels, the internet application among them. Subsection 2-1 limits the condition from the other side: proving the justified interest must not be unreasonably burdensome for the consumer. Subsection 3 forbids a refusal on grounds of nationality or place of residence where the consumer is a foreigner holding a valid Estonian residence permit or right of residence, or an applicant for international protection. The bank must conclude the contract or tell the consumer it is refusing within ten business days of a properly made application, and it must give the reasons in writing and free of charge unless disclosing them would conflict with national security, public order or the money laundering legislation. Refusal is compulsory on the grounds in section 42(1) of the money laundering Act, but the 2025 amendment also says a bank may not refuse on the basis of its own risk appetite: it must instead mitigate, by capping monthly payment volumes, single transactions, the balance held or cash withdrawals outside the EEA - and those measures may not go so far as to make the services unusable or leave the consumer and dependants unable to meet the needs of daily life. Fees must be reasonable, judged against the income level of Estonian residents and the average fees charged in Estonia.
At a glance
- Who may demand a basic account
- A consumer lawfully residing in the European Union, where there is a justified interest
Section 710-1(2) of the Võlaõigusseadus, as amended with effect from 15 July 2025. The justified-interest condition is new.
- Proving the justified interest
- May not be unreasonably burdensome for the consumer
Section 710-1(2-1) of the Võlaõigusseadus, added by the same amendment.
- Decision time
- 10 business days from a properly made application
Section 710-1(4) of the Võlaõigusseadus. Finland's Payment Services Act gives the same ten banking days.
- Refusal on nationality or residence
- Forbidden for a holder of an Estonian residence permit or right of residence
Section 710-1(3) of the Võlaõigusseadus, which also covers an applicant for international protection.
- Refusal on the bank's risk appetite
- Not permitted - the bank must mitigate instead
Section 710-1(5-1) of the Võlaõigusseadus lists four mitigations, and subsection 5-3 forbids any that make the services unusable.
- Limit on the number of transactions
- The bank may not impose one
Section 710-1(10) of the Võlaõigusseadus.
- Fees
- Reasonable, judged against Estonian income levels and average fees in Estonia
Section 711-4(1) of the Võlaõigusseadus. No amount is stated anywhere in the Act.
Requirements
- Lawful residence in the European Union
- A justified interest in the basic payment service contract, which may not be unreasonably burdensome to prove
- No ground for compulsory refusal under section 42(1) of the money laundering and terrorist financing prevention Act
In detail
The condition Estonia added
The Payment Accounts Directive lets a member state require a consumer to show a genuine interest before a basic account must be opened. Finland's record does not carry that condition; Estonia's law did not carry it either until 15 July 2025, when section 710-1(2) was rewritten to add it, together with the sentence in subsection 2-1 that proving it must not be unreasonably burdensome. The pair is the whole of the Estonian balance: a bank may ask why you want the account, and may not make answering hard.
Risk appetite is not a reason
The same July 2025 amendment added subsection 5-1, which says a credit institution may not refuse a basic payment service contract on the basis of the risk appetite it has determined under section 10 of the money laundering Act, and gives it four mitigations instead: a monthly cap on payments, a cap on a single transaction including transactions outside the EEA, a cap on the balance held, and a prohibition or restriction on cash withdrawal outside the EEA. Subsection 5-2 exempts payments of taxes, fines and state fees from those caps, and subsection 5-3 says the measures may not be of a scope or nature that makes the services impossible to use, or that leaves the consumer and dependants unable to satisfy the needs of daily life. This is the most detailed treatment of de-risking in any record in this corpus.
Country-level policy
Estonia issues an e-resident's digital identity card, and the only Act that creates it is the Isikut tõendavate dokumentide seadus. Section 20-5(1) defines it as a digital document issued to a citizen of a foreign state who does not hold, and is not simultaneously applying for, an Estonian identity card or residence permit card; section 3(3) defines a digital document as one intended for identifying a person and verifying identity in an electronic environment. Section 20-5(2) states the purpose: to promote the development of the Estonian economy, science, education or culture by creating a possibility to use e-services with an Estonian digital document. That is the whole of what it is. It is not a residence permit, because a residence permit is granted under section 118 of the Välismaalaste seadus on one of nine grounds and this is not one of them; it is not a legal basis for being in Estonia, because section 43(1) of that Act lists eleven legal bases for a temporary stay and this is not one of them; and it is not a visa, a right of residence or a right to work. It does not even guarantee a service: section 20-10 lets any public or private service provider refuse an e-resident, restrict the service's content or reach, or demand extra documents or a personal appearance. Since 6 July 2025 an application is returned unexamined if the applicant is a citizen of a state with a higher risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, or a state with which Estonia has no justice, security or law-enforcement cooperation, unless a ministerial regulation makes an exception for them.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Luxembourg
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«(2) Kui seadusest ei tulene teisiti, kohustub krediidiasutus osutama Euroopa Liidus seaduslikul alusel elavale tarbijale käesoleva seaduse § 709 lõikes 151 nimetatud põhimakseteenuseid ja sõlmima tarbija põhjendatud huvi korral põhimakseteenuste osutamiseks makseteenuse lepingu (edaspidi põhimakseteenuse leping). Krediidiasutus peab võimaldama põhimakseteenuseid kasutada eri kanalite, sealhulgas internetirakenduse kaudu.»Our translation - not official
Unless otherwise provided by law, a credit institution is obliged to provide a consumer lawfully residing in the European Union with the basic payment services referred to in section 709(15-1) of this Act and, where the consumer has a justified interest, to conclude a payment service contract for the provision of basic payment services (the basic payment service contract). A credit institution must make it possible to use the basic payment services through various channels, including through an internet application.
The duty, the new justified-interest condition and the channel requirement, all added or rewritten with effect from 15 July 2025.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Estonia's state gazette, published by the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, and unusual in this corpus because its consolidated texts are official by statute rather than by convention. Section 1(1) of the Riigi Teataja seadus makes it the official online publication of the Republic of Estonia; section 2(1) says acts are published in it as official original texts; and section 3(1) says that alongside the original text it publishes the official consolidated texts - ametlikud terviktekstid - of Acts, presidential decrees, government, ministerial and Bank of Estonia regulations, Riigikogu resolutions, government orders and local authority regulations. Section 3(2) requires the publisher to add validity-period data to each consolidated text, which is why every act page here carries a line of the form 'Kehtiv sõnastus 30.09.2026 - 30.12.2026': the wording in force, with the day it took effect and the day a later redaktsioon replaces it. That makes the cut-off a published fact rather than an inference, and it also makes future law visible in advance, because a redaktsioon that starts in 2027 already exists at its own address. Each act is addressed as /akt/<id>, where the id is the publication date and sequence number of the redaktsioon, so a cited address is pinned to one wording rather than redirecting to whatever is current. The site also runs an abbreviation index at /api/v1/akt/lyhendid mapping each statute's Estonian abbreviation to its current redaktsioon id, and a full-text search at /api/v1/otsing/tervik-tekst, both of which were used to find instruments for this country.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one. Section 6 of the Riigi Teataja seadus provides only that the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs arranges translation 'to the extent determined by the minister responsible for the area', that translations are made available in Riigi Teataja, and that a sworn translator is competent to translate an Act into a foreign language; nowhere does the Act call a translation official, which is the contrast with sections 2(1) and 3(1), where it does use that word of the Estonian texts. Translations carry their own cut-offs and lag the Estonian redaktsioon. Two further traps. First, a subdivision of an Act can outlive the ground that created it: sections 198 to 200 of the Välismaalaste seadus still describe a residence permit for sufficient legal income, with no repeal marker and with amendments dated 2013 and 2017, although section 309-2(1) stopped the permit being granted on 1 July 2012 - so a repealed ground shows only as a bracketed note against a point number in the list of grounds, eleven chapters away from the sections that describe it. Second, the site is an Angular single-page application behind Cloudflare: a plain fetch returns a 62 kB shell and no law at all, so a reading must be taken through a renderer. It cannot be cited for anything that is not published in Riigi Teataja - agency practice, application procedures, money figures the agency publishes on its own pages - and it is not a source for what any instrument means.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(21) Põhjendatud huvi tõendamine ei tohi tarbija jaoks olla ebamõistlikult koormav.»Our translation - not official
Proving a justified interest may not be unreasonably burdensome for the consumer.
The counterweight, in one sentence.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Estonia's state gazette, published by the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, and unusual in this corpus because its consolidated texts are official by statute rather than by convention. Section 1(1) of the Riigi Teataja seadus makes it the official online publication of the Republic of Estonia; section 2(1) says acts are published in it as official original texts; and section 3(1) says that alongside the original text it publishes the official consolidated texts - ametlikud terviktekstid - of Acts, presidential decrees, government, ministerial and Bank of Estonia regulations, Riigikogu resolutions, government orders and local authority regulations. Section 3(2) requires the publisher to add validity-period data to each consolidated text, which is why every act page here carries a line of the form 'Kehtiv sõnastus 30.09.2026 - 30.12.2026': the wording in force, with the day it took effect and the day a later redaktsioon replaces it. That makes the cut-off a published fact rather than an inference, and it also makes future law visible in advance, because a redaktsioon that starts in 2027 already exists at its own address. Each act is addressed as /akt/<id>, where the id is the publication date and sequence number of the redaktsioon, so a cited address is pinned to one wording rather than redirecting to whatever is current. The site also runs an abbreviation index at /api/v1/akt/lyhendid mapping each statute's Estonian abbreviation to its current redaktsioon id, and a full-text search at /api/v1/otsing/tervik-tekst, both of which were used to find instruments for this country.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one. Section 6 of the Riigi Teataja seadus provides only that the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs arranges translation 'to the extent determined by the minister responsible for the area', that translations are made available in Riigi Teataja, and that a sworn translator is competent to translate an Act into a foreign language; nowhere does the Act call a translation official, which is the contrast with sections 2(1) and 3(1), where it does use that word of the Estonian texts. Translations carry their own cut-offs and lag the Estonian redaktsioon. Two further traps. First, a subdivision of an Act can outlive the ground that created it: sections 198 to 200 of the Välismaalaste seadus still describe a residence permit for sufficient legal income, with no repeal marker and with amendments dated 2013 and 2017, although section 309-2(1) stopped the permit being granted on 1 July 2012 - so a repealed ground shows only as a bracketed note against a point number in the list of grounds, eleven chapters away from the sections that describe it. Second, the site is an Angular single-page application behind Cloudflare: a plain fetch returns a 62 kB shell and no law at all, so a reading must be taken through a renderer. It cannot be cited for anything that is not published in Riigi Teataja - agency practice, application procedures, money figures the agency publishes on its own pages - and it is not a source for what any instrument means.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(3) Krediidiasutus ei tohi keelduda põhimakseteenuse lepingu sõlmimisest Eestis kehtivat elamisluba või elamisõigust omava välismaalasega, samuti rahvusvahelise kaitse taotlejaga rahvusvahelise kaitse andmise seaduse tähenduses, tarbija kodakondsuse või elukoha tõttu.»Our translation - not official
A credit institution may not refuse to conclude a basic payment service contract with a foreigner holding a valid Estonian residence permit or right of residence, or with an applicant for international protection within the meaning of the Act on Granting International Protection to Aliens, on the ground of the consumer's citizenship or place of residence.
The anti-discrimination limb, which names residence permit holders specifically.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Estonia's state gazette, published by the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, and unusual in this corpus because its consolidated texts are official by statute rather than by convention. Section 1(1) of the Riigi Teataja seadus makes it the official online publication of the Republic of Estonia; section 2(1) says acts are published in it as official original texts; and section 3(1) says that alongside the original text it publishes the official consolidated texts - ametlikud terviktekstid - of Acts, presidential decrees, government, ministerial and Bank of Estonia regulations, Riigikogu resolutions, government orders and local authority regulations. Section 3(2) requires the publisher to add validity-period data to each consolidated text, which is why every act page here carries a line of the form 'Kehtiv sõnastus 30.09.2026 - 30.12.2026': the wording in force, with the day it took effect and the day a later redaktsioon replaces it. That makes the cut-off a published fact rather than an inference, and it also makes future law visible in advance, because a redaktsioon that starts in 2027 already exists at its own address. Each act is addressed as /akt/<id>, where the id is the publication date and sequence number of the redaktsioon, so a cited address is pinned to one wording rather than redirecting to whatever is current. The site also runs an abbreviation index at /api/v1/akt/lyhendid mapping each statute's Estonian abbreviation to its current redaktsioon id, and a full-text search at /api/v1/otsing/tervik-tekst, both of which were used to find instruments for this country.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one. Section 6 of the Riigi Teataja seadus provides only that the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs arranges translation 'to the extent determined by the minister responsible for the area', that translations are made available in Riigi Teataja, and that a sworn translator is competent to translate an Act into a foreign language; nowhere does the Act call a translation official, which is the contrast with sections 2(1) and 3(1), where it does use that word of the Estonian texts. Translations carry their own cut-offs and lag the Estonian redaktsioon. Two further traps. First, a subdivision of an Act can outlive the ground that created it: sections 198 to 200 of the Välismaalaste seadus still describe a residence permit for sufficient legal income, with no repeal marker and with amendments dated 2013 and 2017, although section 309-2(1) stopped the permit being granted on 1 July 2012 - so a repealed ground shows only as a bracketed note against a point number in the list of grounds, eleven chapters away from the sections that describe it. Second, the site is an Angular single-page application behind Cloudflare: a plain fetch returns a 62 kB shell and no law at all, so a reading must be taken through a renderer. It cannot be cited for anything that is not published in Riigi Teataja - agency practice, application procedures, money figures the agency publishes on its own pages - and it is not a source for what any instrument means.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(4) Krediidiasutus on kohustatud viivitamata, kuid hiljemalt kümne arvelduspäeva möödumisel tarbija nõuetekohase taotluse saamisest sõlmima tarbijaga põhimakseteenuse lepingu või teavitama teda lepingu sõlmimisest keeldumisest, kui käesolevas paragrahvis ei ole ette nähtud teisiti.»Our translation - not official
A credit institution is obliged to conclude a basic payment service contract with the consumer, or to notify the consumer of its refusal to conclude the contract, immediately but not later than on the expiry of ten business days from receipt of the consumer's duly made application, unless otherwise provided in this section.
Ten business days, matching Finland's ten banking days.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Estonia's state gazette, published by the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, and unusual in this corpus because its consolidated texts are official by statute rather than by convention. Section 1(1) of the Riigi Teataja seadus makes it the official online publication of the Republic of Estonia; section 2(1) says acts are published in it as official original texts; and section 3(1) says that alongside the original text it publishes the official consolidated texts - ametlikud terviktekstid - of Acts, presidential decrees, government, ministerial and Bank of Estonia regulations, Riigikogu resolutions, government orders and local authority regulations. Section 3(2) requires the publisher to add validity-period data to each consolidated text, which is why every act page here carries a line of the form 'Kehtiv sõnastus 30.09.2026 - 30.12.2026': the wording in force, with the day it took effect and the day a later redaktsioon replaces it. That makes the cut-off a published fact rather than an inference, and it also makes future law visible in advance, because a redaktsioon that starts in 2027 already exists at its own address. Each act is addressed as /akt/<id>, where the id is the publication date and sequence number of the redaktsioon, so a cited address is pinned to one wording rather than redirecting to whatever is current. The site also runs an abbreviation index at /api/v1/akt/lyhendid mapping each statute's Estonian abbreviation to its current redaktsioon id, and a full-text search at /api/v1/otsing/tervik-tekst, both of which were used to find instruments for this country.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one. Section 6 of the Riigi Teataja seadus provides only that the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs arranges translation 'to the extent determined by the minister responsible for the area', that translations are made available in Riigi Teataja, and that a sworn translator is competent to translate an Act into a foreign language; nowhere does the Act call a translation official, which is the contrast with sections 2(1) and 3(1), where it does use that word of the Estonian texts. Translations carry their own cut-offs and lag the Estonian redaktsioon. Two further traps. First, a subdivision of an Act can outlive the ground that created it: sections 198 to 200 of the Välismaalaste seadus still describe a residence permit for sufficient legal income, with no repeal marker and with amendments dated 2013 and 2017, although section 309-2(1) stopped the permit being granted on 1 July 2012 - so a repealed ground shows only as a bracketed note against a point number in the list of grounds, eleven chapters away from the sections that describe it. Second, the site is an Angular single-page application behind Cloudflare: a plain fetch returns a 62 kB shell and no law at all, so a reading must be taken through a renderer. It cannot be cited for anything that is not published in Riigi Teataja - agency practice, application procedures, money figures the agency publishes on its own pages - and it is not a source for what any instrument means.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(10) Krediidiasutus ei või piirata põhimakseteenustega seotud tehingute arvu.»Our translation - not official
A credit institution may not limit the number of transactions connected with the basic payment services.
No transaction cap.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Estonia's state gazette, published by the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, and unusual in this corpus because its consolidated texts are official by statute rather than by convention. Section 1(1) of the Riigi Teataja seadus makes it the official online publication of the Republic of Estonia; section 2(1) says acts are published in it as official original texts; and section 3(1) says that alongside the original text it publishes the official consolidated texts - ametlikud terviktekstid - of Acts, presidential decrees, government, ministerial and Bank of Estonia regulations, Riigikogu resolutions, government orders and local authority regulations. Section 3(2) requires the publisher to add validity-period data to each consolidated text, which is why every act page here carries a line of the form 'Kehtiv sõnastus 30.09.2026 - 30.12.2026': the wording in force, with the day it took effect and the day a later redaktsioon replaces it. That makes the cut-off a published fact rather than an inference, and it also makes future law visible in advance, because a redaktsioon that starts in 2027 already exists at its own address. Each act is addressed as /akt/<id>, where the id is the publication date and sequence number of the redaktsioon, so a cited address is pinned to one wording rather than redirecting to whatever is current. The site also runs an abbreviation index at /api/v1/akt/lyhendid mapping each statute's Estonian abbreviation to its current redaktsioon id, and a full-text search at /api/v1/otsing/tervik-tekst, both of which were used to find instruments for this country.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one. Section 6 of the Riigi Teataja seadus provides only that the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs arranges translation 'to the extent determined by the minister responsible for the area', that translations are made available in Riigi Teataja, and that a sworn translator is competent to translate an Act into a foreign language; nowhere does the Act call a translation official, which is the contrast with sections 2(1) and 3(1), where it does use that word of the Estonian texts. Translations carry their own cut-offs and lag the Estonian redaktsioon. Two further traps. First, a subdivision of an Act can outlive the ground that created it: sections 198 to 200 of the Välismaalaste seadus still describe a residence permit for sufficient legal income, with no repeal marker and with amendments dated 2013 and 2017, although section 309-2(1) stopped the permit being granted on 1 July 2012 - so a repealed ground shows only as a bracketed note against a point number in the list of grounds, eleven chapters away from the sections that describe it. Second, the site is an Angular single-page application behind Cloudflare: a plain fetch returns a 62 kB shell and no law at all, so a reading must be taken through a renderer. It cannot be cited for anything that is not published in Riigi Teataja - agency practice, application procedures, money figures the agency publishes on its own pages - and it is not a source for what any instrument means.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(1) Kui krediidiasutus võtab tarbijalt käesoleva seaduse § 709 lõike 151 punktides 1–3 ja 5 nimetatud põhimakseteenuste eest tasu, peab tasu olema mõistlik ning selle määramisel võetakse arvesse:»Our translation - not official
If a credit institution charges a consumer a fee for the basic payment services referred to in section 709(15-1) points 1 to 3 and 5 of this Act, the fee must be reasonable, and in determining it account is taken of:
The two factors that follow are the income level of Estonian residents and the average fees charged by credit institutions in Estonia for payment services connected with a payment account.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Estonia's state gazette, published by the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, and unusual in this corpus because its consolidated texts are official by statute rather than by convention. Section 1(1) of the Riigi Teataja seadus makes it the official online publication of the Republic of Estonia; section 2(1) says acts are published in it as official original texts; and section 3(1) says that alongside the original text it publishes the official consolidated texts - ametlikud terviktekstid - of Acts, presidential decrees, government, ministerial and Bank of Estonia regulations, Riigikogu resolutions, government orders and local authority regulations. Section 3(2) requires the publisher to add validity-period data to each consolidated text, which is why every act page here carries a line of the form 'Kehtiv sõnastus 30.09.2026 - 30.12.2026': the wording in force, with the day it took effect and the day a later redaktsioon replaces it. That makes the cut-off a published fact rather than an inference, and it also makes future law visible in advance, because a redaktsioon that starts in 2027 already exists at its own address. Each act is addressed as /akt/<id>, where the id is the publication date and sequence number of the redaktsioon, so a cited address is pinned to one wording rather than redirecting to whatever is current. The site also runs an abbreviation index at /api/v1/akt/lyhendid mapping each statute's Estonian abbreviation to its current redaktsioon id, and a full-text search at /api/v1/otsing/tervik-tekst, both of which were used to find instruments for this country.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one. Section 6 of the Riigi Teataja seadus provides only that the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs arranges translation 'to the extent determined by the minister responsible for the area', that translations are made available in Riigi Teataja, and that a sworn translator is competent to translate an Act into a foreign language; nowhere does the Act call a translation official, which is the contrast with sections 2(1) and 3(1), where it does use that word of the Estonian texts. Translations carry their own cut-offs and lag the Estonian redaktsioon. Two further traps. First, a subdivision of an Act can outlive the ground that created it: sections 198 to 200 of the Välismaalaste seadus still describe a residence permit for sufficient legal income, with no repeal marker and with amendments dated 2013 and 2017, although section 309-2(1) stopped the permit being granted on 1 July 2012 - so a repealed ground shows only as a bracketed note against a point number in the list of grounds, eleven chapters away from the sections that describe it. Second, the site is an Angular single-page application behind Cloudflare: a plain fetch returns a 62 kB shell and no law at all, so a reading must be taken through a renderer. It cannot be cited for anything that is not published in Riigi Teataja - agency practice, application procedures, money figures the agency publishes on its own pages - and it is not a source for what any instrument means.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Nothing was read from the Finantsinspektsioon or from any Estonian bank, so this record states the statutory duty and not what a particular bank does.
Section 42(1) of the Rahapesu ja terrorismi rahastamise tõkestamise seadus, which lists the grounds on which refusal is compulsory, was not read.
Estonian strong electronic identification, the Mobile-ID and Smart-ID systems banks rely on in practice, is governed by instruments not read here. The Finnish record found the right to a basic account carried strong identification with it; no equivalent provision was looked for in Estonian law.
Nothing here covers what an e-resident can and cannot do with an Estonian bank. Section 20-10 of the Isikut tõendavate dokumentide seadus expressly lets any service provider, public or private, refuse or restrict a service to an e-resident.
- consolidatesVõlaõigusseadus, consolidated text in force from 31 August 2026
Riigi Teataja · consolidated to 2026-08-31
About this source
Estonia's state gazette, published by the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, and unusual in this corpus because its consolidated texts are official by statute rather than by convention. Section 1(1) of the Riigi Teataja seadus makes it the official online publication of the Republic of Estonia; section 2(1) says acts are published in it as official original texts; and section 3(1) says that alongside the original text it publishes the official consolidated texts - ametlikud terviktekstid - of Acts, presidential decrees, government, ministerial and Bank of Estonia regulations, Riigikogu resolutions, government orders and local authority regulations. Section 3(2) requires the publisher to add validity-period data to each consolidated text, which is why every act page here carries a line of the form 'Kehtiv sõnastus 30.09.2026 - 30.12.2026': the wording in force, with the day it took effect and the day a later redaktsioon replaces it. That makes the cut-off a published fact rather than an inference, and it also makes future law visible in advance, because a redaktsioon that starts in 2027 already exists at its own address. Each act is addressed as /akt/<id>, where the id is the publication date and sequence number of the redaktsioon, so a cited address is pinned to one wording rather than redirecting to whatever is current. The site also runs an abbreviation index at /api/v1/akt/lyhendid mapping each statute's Estonian abbreviation to its current redaktsioon id, and a full-text search at /api/v1/otsing/tervik-tekst, both of which were used to find instruments for this country.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The English translations are not the instrument and must never be quoted as one. Section 6 of the Riigi Teataja seadus provides only that the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs arranges translation 'to the extent determined by the minister responsible for the area', that translations are made available in Riigi Teataja, and that a sworn translator is competent to translate an Act into a foreign language; nowhere does the Act call a translation official, which is the contrast with sections 2(1) and 3(1), where it does use that word of the Estonian texts. Translations carry their own cut-offs and lag the Estonian redaktsioon. Two further traps. First, a subdivision of an Act can outlive the ground that created it: sections 198 to 200 of the Välismaalaste seadus still describe a residence permit for sufficient legal income, with no repeal marker and with amendments dated 2013 and 2017, although section 309-2(1) stopped the permit being granted on 1 July 2012 - so a repealed ground shows only as a bracketed note against a point number in the list of grounds, eleven chapters away from the sections that describe it. Second, the site is an Angular single-page application behind Cloudflare: a plain fetch returns a 62 kB shell and no law at all, so a reading must be taken through a renderer. It cannot be cited for anything that is not published in Riigi Teataja - agency practice, application procedures, money figures the agency publishes on its own pages - and it is not a source for what any instrument means.
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