Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Telecomunications

The aim of Sorainen is to reach a situation through the court in which all former small shareholders of Eesti Telekom -- including those who do not submit an application - receive both the compensation as well as the fines for delay for each intermediate year. Sorainen also wants the court to determined the size of procedure expenses, which the Harju county court has ordered Telia to pay, and order Telia to actually pay the expenses, Sorainen said.

After the court decision, which entered into force last November, Telia Company at the beginning of summer called for the shareholders to turn to Ellex Raidla, a law office representing Telia, in order to receive the compensation. Sorainen said that the sum paid by Telia may not include all fines for delay, which the shareholders may be eligible for.

According to information available to Sorainen, Telia will not pay fines for delay for more than three years, even though the company should pay them for seven years. The size of the fine is based on law and is 7-8% a year.

Secondly, when paying the compensation, Telia is not taking into account the circumstance that the Harju county court left the procedure expenses to be paid for by Telia, even though the actual sum of the expenses has not yet been determined. This means that should the small shareholders receive their compensation from Telia through Ellex Raidla now, then Sorainen's individual claim for costs for legal assistance against the shareholders will stand.

Sorainen's charges include hourly pay and performance pay, which was referred to by the Harju county court in a 2010 regulation, which was the basis of appointing joint representatives for the shareholders. The size of the charge is based on whether the shareholder made an advance payment of the costs for legal assistance into court. The performance pay for those who have made an advance payment is 10% of the additional compensation, while it is 30% for those who have not made an advance payment.

Sorainen's right to payment as a representative appointed by the court arises from the fact that the law office has gone to court on behalf of the small shareholders for seven years by now and it was the result of this work that the shareholders were allocated an additional 64 cents per share as additional reimbursement. Without the representation of Sorainen, there would not have been a court decision or a sum of reimbursement to calculate a percentage from.

The next court sitting is scheduled to take place in October.

A regulation of the Harju county court entered into force on November 28, 2016, according to which the court decided that during a takeover of shares in 2010, Telia did not pay a fair compensation to the small shareholders of Eesti Telekom for the shares taken over.