In September 2021, Tallinn City Council introduced new restrictions stipulating that alcohol cannot be sold between 2 a.m. and 6.a.m during the week, and between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. at weekends.

However, Tallinn Deputy Mayor Kaarel Oja (SDE) said that it was essentially impossible to ensure all retailers are complying fully with the restrictions.

"We actually know of a dozen or so places, the lion's share of which are in the Old Town and the city center, that systematically flout the rules that state no alcohol can be sold after a certain time," Oja said.

Raili Nääme, leading supervision specialist in the consumer protection department of Tallinn's Strategic Management Office, explained that one way to keep tabs on things is through cash register statements, However, traders use a variety of different cash registers. Officials do not, unfortunately, have time to get to grips with all the technical details.

"This can be exploited by the trader," said Nääme. "For example, one of the ways is that the trader says they cannot provide this type of statement (on the spot – ed.)." Later, when the required statement is emailed to the official, there is no way to be sure of its accuracy. "Nowadays, it is not difficult to change these documents either," Nääme added.

In addition, the data stored in cash registers may not show when or how a specific sale actually took place.

"Because we don't regulate how the cash register is set up and what level of technical capacity it has, everything is able to be manipulated," Nääme said.

Nääme added that there are also no regulations regarding precisely how different types of goods have to be named in point of sale (POS) systems. "It's quite hard to believe that over the course of an evening, for example, (large numbers of – ed.)  T-shirts are sold in the early hours of the morning," Nääme said, citing one real-life example.

Tallinn wants clear requirements for all cash registers

Tallinn Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) presented this concern to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications on Tuesday. According to the city administration, the Alcohol Act ought to be amended to ensure that there are clear rules for the cash registers used by alcohol sellers.

As an alternative, Ossinovski suggested giving the municipality the right to set the rules.

In essence, the municipality would like all businesses that sell alcohol to have a cash register system which cannot be manipulated by the user and which would also provide unaltered sales data. According to Tallinn Deputy Mayor Kaarel Oja, various options were considered before this one was settled on.

"We have discussed and abandoned the idea that there should be cameras at the points of sale," Oja said. "Of all the solutions that we know of that have been used elsewhere in the world, this seems to be the least costly for the locations."

According to Killu Maidla, CEO of the Estonian Hotel and Restaurant Association, most businesses in the sector use the same type of cash registers.

"Modern cash register systems should all allow for reports of a sufficient quality to be extracted, and as far as I know, these reports shouldn't be too easy to manipulate within the system," said Maidla, who added that the proposed change would not have a major impact on the sector.

Tallinn wants to introduce new spot-checks

In addition to being able to check sales receipts, the city administration also wants to monitor alcohol sales at night. Kaarel Oja said that, as things stand, before an official begins monitoring what is happening at individual points of sale, they first have to introduce themselves and their objectives.

Because local municipal police officers also wear uniforms when out on patrol, alcohol is not sold by suspected rule-breakers while they are around. For that reason, Ossinovski sent another request to ministries, to allow spot-checks to take place in order to catch those flouting the regulations.

"The police theoretically have this right already, but we recognize that their resources are of course limited. The city is ready to look for solutions by itself, to regulate and supervise this," Oja said.

Oja made assurances that city officials are prepared to use what he referred to as "conspiratorial techniques" to achieve their goals. "It is not a complicated technique or method and there are a lot of people with great deal of policing experience among those working as municipal police officers in Tallinn," Oja said.

The deputy mayor stressed that the city does not planning to introduce sweeping checks across the board. "What we are seeing nowadays is that we have a few places where the feeling of impunity is getting worse and worse and with whom it is not possible to have a dialogue," he said.

According to Oja, the city has tried to communicate with business leaders about the issue, and are provided with assurances that they are abiding by the law. "But underneath it, as a rule, there is an undertone or a perception that they know we can't do much under the current legal framework," Oja said.

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