Nordic ALCOHOL and DRUG policy network
NordAN
.png)
Estonia: advertising act reform and the proposal to introduce self-regulation in alcohol advertising
Original case
In 2023, the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (MKM) initiated a process to revise the national Advertising Act through a formal legislative intent document (väljatöötamiskavatsus VTK). The reform was presented as a general update of advertising regulation, responding to changes in media markets, enforcement challenges, and perceived legal ambiguity.
Within this process, alcohol advertising became a significant area of discussion. The VTK questioned the clarity and effectiveness of existing alcohol advertising restrictions and raised the possibility of reducing statutory regulation in favour of self-regulation or co-regulation by advertising and alcohol industry actors. Among the directions discussed were revisiting the neutrality requirement in alcohol advertising, reconsidering channel based restrictions, loosening certain content and visual rules such as the ban on animation, and exploring whether industry actors could play a role in alcohol related consumer information.
Regarding the structure of this potential oversight body, the VTK proposed this:
"In cooperation with the Estonian Marketing Association, possibilities for creating such an organization have been analyzed, and one possible concept is so-called full self-regulation."
The identification of problems and possible solutions relied largely on input from advertising practitioners and other market participants. Alcohol advertising was primarily framed as a regulatory and market functioning issue, rather than as an integral part of alcohol policy aimed at reducing health and social harms.
What happened next
During the VTK consultation, several Estonian public health and civil society organisations submitted written feedback and participated in meetings with MKM officials. These organisations, many of which are members of NordAN, were unanimously critical of any proposal to shift supervision of alcohol advertising away from the state toward self- or co-regulation.
In addition to civil society organisations, most ministries that submitted comments during the consultation process also clearly stated that monitoring and enforcement must remain a responsibility of the state. They opposed delegating supervisory functions to industry-led or voluntary regulatory frameworks, emphasising that oversight is a core public authority function that cannot be outsourced.
Civil society organisations consistently argued that alcohol advertising regulation exists primarily to protect population health, including children and other vulnerable groups, and that industries with direct commercial interests cannot credibly regulate themselves. Several organisations went further and proposed a full ban on alcohol advertising, noting that such an approach would also address practical problems raised in the VTK, including limited enforcement resources, personnel constraints, and regulatory complexity.
In meetings held in March 2024, representatives of public health and civil society organisations raised concerns that alcohol related health and social harms were largely absent from the VTK’s framing. They also questioned why alcohol advertising was being addressed outside the alcohol policy green paper process led by the Ministry of Social Affairs, despite alcohol advertising being a central element of national alcohol policy. On 10 July 2024, MKM informed members of the Advertising Act working groups by email that the reform process would be postponed. The ministry explained that priorities related to economic development and budgetary constraints required delaying the update of the Advertising Act, despite acknowledging the extensive work already completed.
MKM stated that revising the Advertising Act remains important and that the process is expected to resume at the earliest in the second quarter of the following year, continuing from where it was paused. As a result, no legislative changes were adopted, and proposals to introduce self- or co-regulation in alcohol advertising were not advanced.
For the time being, Estonia’s existing statutory alcohol advertising restrictions remain in force. The case demonstrates the breadth of institutional resistance to delegating alcohol advertising oversight to industry actors and highlights the strong alignment between ministries and civil society on the principle that supervision should remain firmly within the remit of the state.