Postal and courier services in Estonia: licence or notice

In Estonia, a company that delivers addressed letters or parcels to other people as a business provides a postal service under the Postal Act (Postiseadus)¹⁶. Delivering letters or parcels needs an activity licence from the Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet), while courier post, direct mail and the delivery of periodicals need only a notice of economic activities¹⁰¹³¹⁵¹⁶. The universal postal service is a separate licence that the law grants to one provider only, chosen by public competition²⁰²¹.

Information as of 11 November 2026. Every numbered statement of this page was checked in the official text named below and re-checked by a second reviewer on 2026-11-11. The page is general information, not legal advice; the authority decides on every application.

What the activity is

A postal service is the delivery of addressed postal items as an economic activity¹. Delivery covers collecting, sorting, transporting and handing the item to the recipient¹. Postal items are letter items, parcels and periodicals².

The act lists these postal services: ordinary items, registered items, bulk items, courier post, direct mail, periodicals and other postal services². Some of them have their own definitions:

Courier post: a letter item or parcel that meets at least four of seven conditions, for example collection from the sender's address, delivery against signature, a guaranteed delivery date, or tracking and rerouting while on its way³.
Direct mail: identical advertising or public material sent at the same time to at least 100 recipients and marked as advertising or direct mail⁴. Invoices are not direct mail⁴.
Bulk items: letter items that one sender hands over at the same time for at least 100 recipients⁵.

What is not a postal service: delivering one's own written notices and items in one's own name and for one's own business⁶, and transport of postal items alone⁷.

The legal act and the authority

Act: Postiseadus (Postal Act), redaction in force from 10 August 2026⁸.
General rules: Majandustegevuse seadustiku üldosa seadus (General Part of the Economic Activities Code Act, MSÜS) applies to licence applications and notices, with the special rules of the Postal Act⁹.
Authority: the Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet) decides licence applications¹⁰ and carries out state supervision under the Postal Act¹¹.
Register: licences and notices are entered in the Register of Economic Activities (majandustegevuse register)¹².

Who must apply

Activity licence required for¹³:

the universal postal service;
delivery of letter items in any of the forms the act lists, including registered and bulk items;
delivery of parcels in the same forms.

A licence for letters or parcels covers both domestic and international delivery, unless the company applies for domestic delivery only¹⁴.

No licence is needed for periodicals, direct mail or courier post¹⁵. For these, and for other postal services, the company files a notice of economic activities instead¹⁶. The notice states the geographic area of the service in addition to the general data¹⁷ and is filed only through the state portal (eesti.ee) or a notary¹⁸.

Universal postal service. This is the regular, good-quality and affordable delivery of domestic and international letter items (ordinary and registered) and of international parcels up to 20 kg, everywhere in Estonia¹⁹. Its licence is issued to one person only²⁰, who is chosen by a public competition held by the Competition Authority²¹.

Requirements for the applicant

The Competition Authority grants a licence if²²:

the applicant and the activity meet the requirements of the Postal Act and the regulations under it;
neither the applicant nor a person entitled to manage it has a criminal record entry for an official or economic offence;
the applicant's standard terms comply with the law and the aims of the act;
the applicant has the postal network the service needs, or a right to use one.

The postal network is the system of equipment and means used to deliver postal items, split into a collection network and a distribution network²³. Using another provider's network requires a written network-use agreement²⁴.

The standard terms must describe, among other things, the service, the requirements for items, quality (manner, time and frequency of delivery), prohibited items, prices and payment, complaints handling and compensation for lost or damaged items²⁵. They must be available free of charge on the provider's website and in all its post offices²⁶.

Whether a minimum capital, own funds or anti-money-laundering rules apply is specified for the client's situation.

Universal postal service fee and financing (by reference only). A provider licensed for letters or parcels has a universal postal service financing obligation²⁷: it pays a universal postal service payment based on the turnover or volume of its licensed services, at a rate set by Government regulation within the limits of the act²⁸. Providers also pay a supervision fee under the Competition Act²⁹.

Documents filed with the application

Licence application. In addition to the data required by MSÜS³⁰ (name and registry code, contact details, the field of activity and the signatory with the basis of representation), the application contains³¹:

a note, if the letter or parcel service is to be domestic only;
documents showing the postal network needed for the service, or the right to use one, for the term of the licence;
a proposal for the licence's secondary conditions: start date, geographic area, number and location of access points and minimum opening hours of post offices³²;
the standard terms of the postal service.

A company still being founded files its founding document instead of a registry code³³.

Notice of economic activities. The general data of MSÜS (name and registry code, contact details, field of activity, start date if it differs from the filing date, signatory)³⁴ and the geographic area of the service¹⁷.

State fee and processing time

State fees under the State Fees Act (Riigilõivuseadus)³⁵:

postal service licence application: EUR 370; change of licence conditions or of standard terms: EUR 250 each;
universal postal service licence application: EUR 1,180; change of licence conditions or of standard terms: EUR 670 each.

Whether a state fee applies to a notice of economic activities is specified for the client's situation.

The authority decides on a licence application within 30 days, counted from the date all required data has been filed³⁶. If data is missing, it sets a time limit to file it; it may suspend the time limit for up to 30 days while a defect is corrected, and extend it once by up to 30 days³⁶. It may also ask for further data needed to check the requirements³⁷. A postal licence always carries secondary conditions³², so the rule that a licence is deemed granted when the time limit passes does not apply to it³⁸.

These time limits are set by law; they are not a promise of when or whether a licence will be granted. A postal licence is granted for five years³⁹; an application for a new licence is filed at least 60 days before the old one expires⁴⁰.

What LexorCorp Global OÜ does and how to order

LexorCorp Global OÜ sells this work through its activity licence application documentation service. For the client's postal activity it:

sets out the requirements of the act from its official text;
prepares the licence application, or the notice for courier post, direct mail or periodicals;
files it through the Register of Economic Activities;
handles the written follow-up of the authority's questions.

The service does not include legal advice, an audit or tax advice. The decision on the licence and its timing belong to the Competition Authority alone; LexorCorp does not promise a licence, a date or any decision.

The price depends on the activity and is given on request. Request a price from the post and communications section of the guide Licensed activities in Estonia. The request reaches LexorCorp like every other enquiry, and the reply comes by email.

Sources

PostiS § 2 lg 1–2 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 4 lg 1 and lg 5 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 4 lg 9 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 4 lg 10–11 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 4 lg 81 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 2 lg 6 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 22 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS header — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 11 lg 2, § 21 lg 2 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 11 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 43 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
MSÜS § 8 lg 1–2, § 52 lg 1, § 53 lg 1 — text in force from 01.09.2025
PostiS § 10 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 10 lg 3 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 10 lg 4 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 21 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 21 lg 2 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 21 lg 3 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 5 lg 1–2 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 10 lg 2 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 6 lg 1 and 3 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 12 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 7 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 24 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 27 lg 2 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 27 lg 4 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 413 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 412 lg 3–4 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 1 lg 21 — text in force from 10.08.2026
MSÜS § 19 lg 2 p 1 with § 15 lg 1 p 1–4 and 7 — text in force from 01.09.2025
PostiS § 11 lg 2 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 14 lg 1 — text in force from 10.08.2026
MSÜS § 19 lg 4 — text in force from 01.09.2025
MSÜS § 15 lg 1 p 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 — text in force from 01.09.2025
RLS § 261^4 and § 261^5 — text in force from 01.11.2026
MSÜS § 20 lg 1–3 — text in force from 01.09.2025
MSÜS § 19 lg 6 — text in force from 01.09.2025
MSÜS § 20 lg 4 — text in force from 01.09.2025
PostiS § 10 lg 5 — text in force from 10.08.2026
PostiS § 20 lg 2 — text in force from 10.08.2026

Official sources

The laws this article names, each linked to its official text, as read on 9 October 2026. For the Estonian acts we read the English translation in Riigi Teataja; the legally binding text is the Estonian one.

State Fees Act — Riigi Teataja, English translation

Sources in the text are named without links; the official texts are linked under Official sources. To see which of our services your company needs, open the Business Navigator.