TALLINN - The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Consumer Protection Board and found that vendors must enable customers to pay in cash and are not allowed to impose an additional charge on cash payments.
In accordance to the ruling, the prices of goods and services must include the expenses of allowing different ways of payment, as the Consumer Protection Board had argued. In 2003 the board issued a reprimand to Radiolinja Eesti, a mobile communications company, ordering the firm to let customers make payments in cash without an extra service charge.
RLE balked and went to court, arguing that enabling cash payments is not mandatory and a service charge for accepting cash is in conformity with good trade practices. The administrative court rejected the complaint, and the firm appealed to the higher-level Tallinn Circuit Court, which also ruled in the board's favor.
