This page provides a brief overview of the information offered on insolvency by the Estonian commercial register and the official publication Ametlikud Teadaanded [Official Announcements].
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Estonia does not have a separate insolvency register, but information on bankruptcy proceedings and debt adjustment proceedings of legal entities and natural persons is available in the official electronic publication Ametlikud Teadaanded. In addition, the Estonian commercial register and the register of non-profit associations and foundations contain information on the bankruptcy of legal entities and self-employed persons.
The following are examples of what is entered in Ametlikud Teadaanded by the courts and trustees in bankruptcy:
A full list of the announcements to be published can be found on the Ametlikud Teadaanded website.
The following are entered in the Estonian Commercial Register and the register of non-profit associations and foundations on the basis of a court judgment:
Details of trade bans imposed on a debtor or the person with power to represent them or prohibitions on the pursuit of commercial activities imposed on that person are not entered in the register.
The Estonian Commercial Register contains the following information on bankrupt legal entities:
Registry data can be accessed online and at notaries’ offices.
Access to Ametlikud Teadaanded is free of charge.
No fee is charged online for searches concerning legal entities, self-employed persons and branches of foreign companies, for information about court proceedings or for access to registry card data. However, a fee is charged for all other searches, including historical registry card data and access to annual reports, articles of association and other documents. The rates charged for using the computer data in the commercial register are laid down in a Regulation of the Minister for Justice.
A fee is charged for consulting registry data and file documents at a notary’s office. The fees are set out in the Notary Fees Act.
Details of trade bans are published and can be accessed free of charge online.
You can search in Ametlikud Teadaanded for information concerning the insolvency of a legal entity or natural person by name or personal identification code/registry code, and on the general search page you can also search by keyword. Using the search function, all published announcements concerning ongoing insolvency proceedings can be found easily. When the proceedings come to an end, the announcements are archived, with the exception of announcements concerning the termination of proceedings, which remain public for three years.
You can search for a legal entity or self-employed person in the e-commercial register by business name, name or registry code. The status of a legal entity or self-employed person indicates whether or not that person or entity is bankrupt.
Since autumn 2019, Ametlikud Teadaanded has been included in the interconnected insolvency registers search interface of the e-Justice portal, enabling companies, lenders and investors wishing to invest in other Member States to carry out background checks directly in the insolvency register of another country. As a result of the multilingual solution that has been put in place, the process of acquiring insolvency information across borders is more transparent and the information itself is easier to access. The information is available free of charge. The portal has a basic search function, which enables searches to be made in all the interconnected registers by debtor name, and also advanced search functionality, where the search criteria depend on which country’s register is being searched in. For Estonia, it is possible to search by debtor name and by personal identification code/registry code.
The Estonian insolvency service has been available since 1 September 1995.
The national language version of this page is maintained by the respective Member State. The translations have been done by the European Commission service. Possible changes introduced in the original by the competent national authority may not be yet reflected in the translations. The European Commission accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to any information or data contained or referred to in this document. Please refer to the legal notice to see copyright rules for the Member State responsible for this page.