The Chamber of Commerce proposed to suspend the procedure for amendments to the Language Act

The Chamber of Commerce expressed an opinion on the draft law amending the Language Act and the Public Transport Act, which concerns, among other things, language requirements for foreign language trademarks, audio advertising, persons working through a digital platform and taxi drivers. 

The Chamber of Commerce suggested to stop the draft procedure because the explanatory letter does not clearly mention the problems that need to be solved, and the question remains unanswered as to why the changes contained in the draft have been chosen to solve the problems. According to the Chamber, in the form of many changes, it is also over-regulation. In addition, the Chamber pointed out shortcomings in the impact analysis and other important violations related to the principles of good legislation. It is also unclear why the draft is being processed as urgent. In the following, we will explain the Chamber's positions in more detail. 

Language requirement related to the use of trademark

It remains unclear to the Chamber of Commerce which problem will be solved by the planned amendment to the law, where important information contained in foreign language trademarks about the place of business, offered goods or services must be located in the same field of view as in the Estonian language, and must be as easily visible as the information in a foreign language.  

In the Chamber's opinion, the planned change is an over-regulation and there is no practical need to translate into Estonian, for example, a trademark with a foreign text on a building that includes the words hotel, cafe, bank, market, spa, etc. Translating such words does not add value to the consumer, but entails additional costs for businesses. 

Audio advertising aimed at the public
As the Language Act does not currently regulate the language requirements of audio advertising aimed at the public, the Chamber of Commerce supports the principle that the Language Act could be supplemented in this regard. In the Chamber's opinion, it is reasonable to include in the law the principle that audio advertising aimed at the public is in Estonian, and audio advertising in Estonian can be followed by audio advertising in a foreign language. This change ensures that the audio announcement is always also in Estonian language, and in the Estonian language first. At the same time, since the Language Board interprets the Language Act in this way already today, it is not essential to make such amendment in the Language Act. At the same time, the Chamber does not support the requirement included in the draft, according to which the share of foreign language audio advertising cannot exceed 20 percent of the total volume of audio advertising.

The change will affect, for example, audio advertising played on the internal radio of large shopping centres and stores. 

Language requirement for employees working through a digital platform
The complaints received by the Language Board attest that the digital platform, which mediates information between the client of the good or service and the provider, does not always help to find a solution to misunderstandings between the client of the service and the courier or taxi driver who does not speak Estonian, either to find the correct destination, address or clarification of the time or any other circumstance related to the service. However, the explanatory letter does not specify how many such complaints have been made. So, the extent of the problem is unknown. 

In the Chamber's opinion, it is justified to set slightly different requirements for an employee working through a digital platform, because providing a service through the platform is also possible without additional communication between the employee and the customer. For example, in case of a taxi ordered through a platform, as a general rule, communication between the customer and the taxi driver is not necessary. And if, in exceptional circumstances, there is a need for communication and people cannot understand each other, it is possible to use technical aids, for example, the help of Google translation.

Establishment of the requirement to demonstrate Estonian language skills for the applicant and holder of a service card
According to the draft, the Public Transport Act will be amended in such way that the applicant and holder of a taxi service card will be required to know the Estonian language at least at the B1 level and present the corresponding certificate to the service card provider. 

The Chamber of Commerce does not consider it essential to change the Public Transport Act for several reasons. First, the extent of the problem remains unclear. It is not known whether the problem affects, for example, 10 percent, 50 percent or 90 percent of service card holders. The explanatory letter does not even state how many service card holders there are in Estonia at the moment. Without knowing the extent of the problem, it is difficult to assess whether the solution contained in the draft is the most reasonable. In addition, the explanation contains a very superficial assessment of the effects of the amendment. Since the changes made to the Public Transport Act are not in accordance with the principles of good legislation, the Chamber of Commerce requested that these provisions should be left out of the draft.