Category Archives: General

Ksenia Kravtšenko was previously the Head of Dispute Resolution team at KMPG Law Estonia. At LEXTAL, she will be orchestrating the creation and development of our new Russian Desk, which will provide professional and highly skilled legal aid in Russian.
Kravtšenko was motivated to join LEXTAL by the team: “Young, professional, enthusiastic, innovative and all-in-all awesome people, with whom I would like to work together.”
According to Marge Männiko, the Managing Partner at LEXTAL, Kravtšenko is a valuable addition to our current Russian-speaking team of lawyers. Under the management of Kravtšenko, the team will be able to provide even better legal aid to our Russian-speaking clientele.
Kravtšenko has worked as an attorney-at-law for over 15 years and she has gained experience both in litigation and in commercial and contract law.

LEXTAL advised Estonian rising start-up Eurora in $ 3 million investment round from Change Ventures, joined by well-known angels including the founders of Printify Artis Kehris and Janis Berdigans and KatanaMRP founder Kristjan Vilosius. Eurora has developed a platform which modernizes the processes for cross-border eCommerce transactions and enables to automize tax and duty declarations and fiscal representation for all EU member states. The investment is used to widen the reach of this AI and machine learning based solution on foreign markets. In LEXTAL the project was led by partner Kristi Sild and assisted by lawyer Kaisa-Maris Kubpart.

Read more: https://eurora.com/blog/eurora-closes-3m-seed-round

Modern fraud is cross-border and costs the economy worldwide trillions of euros a year.

Fraudsters are able to act quickly, systematically, and often (semi-) anonymously, moving assets easily across borders, hiding them in a maze of trust funds, offshore structures, etc. Crypto and other modern anonymous and cross-border formats and environments are becoming increasingly attractive to criminals, as it allows them to hide their traces.

LEXTAL partner Olavi-Jüri Luik gives three examples of recent practice.

The first LEXTAL Legal webinar introduced the Omnibus Directive. It is a directive that will take effect in May next year (2022) and aims to improve consumer protection. In the webinar, LEXTAL specialists gave an overview of:

• The main problems that the directive is designed to address;
• GDPR-style fines under the Directive;
• New requirements for businesses, such as stricter transparency requirements;
• Prohibiting certain marketing and sales practices;
• A change in the definition of “free” services

Watch a webinar recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX3Be0p44wc

LEXTAL advised client on the sale of Port One Group (PortOne (Estonia), PortOne Poland, and State Port Group (Lithuania)). PortOne offers services for long-haul transportation companies in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. The buyer is DKV Mobility Group, a European market leader in truck and fleet services.
The project was led by partner Ants Karu. The team included Kristi Sild, Diana Minumets, Martin Nikolajev, Rauno Kinkar, Džiuginta Balčiūnė (ILAW LEXTAL Lithuania), Inga Neniškė (ILAW LEXTAL Lithuania).

Margus Reiland, an attorney-at-law of LEXTAL, represented a family in a dispute with the Tallinn Education Department, whose child was refused to be assigned to the geographically closest, Tallinn School No 21 (the school is located next door to the family’s place of residence), but was assigned a school located more than a kilometer away so that the child would have to cross several dangerous roads on the school trip.

The current system for assigning school places undoubtedly allows for strange and illegal results. As in the present case, for example, a child living next door to a school could be deprived of a school place because the automatic preference for siblings has filled a large number of vacancies. However, the Tallinn Circuit Court rightly found that both criteria provided by law (sister-brother and proximity to the place of residence) are of equal importance, and the Education Department must consider which of them is preferable in each individual case. Thus, this is a significant change in the current practice of assigning schools, which will ultimately make the situation fairer for children and parents.

The Tallinn Education Department did not miss the fundamental court decision either, but the sworn advocate Reiland doubts whether the innovations made by the Education Department have been sufficient to follow the guidelines set out in the court decision and ensure the legality of the assignment of school places.

In the case of the new procedure, it is a good thing that the sibling’s study at the same school does not automatically guarantee the child a place at school (especially in situations where the sibling is already studying, for example, in the 12th grade). It is also assessed whether the sibling is studying at the same study place and living at the same address.

At the same time, the problem remains that each administrative procedure must be substantive, and the circumstances must be considered in the context of each individual case, including a comprehensive assessment of the evidence. The (constitutional) question also remains whether the mandatory taking of an entry of the place of residence according to the population register always produces a legitimate result, especially when the actual evidence confirms another place of residence (the so-called problem of pseudo entries in the population register). Substantive approach, substantive control should be preferred, and, in the opinion of the sworn advocate, it is also supported by the Constitution and the principle of reconciling work and family life. In addition, the new wording of the procedure is legally unclear, which complicates the Education Department’s own life.

Thus, it can be said that the Education Department has done “half the calculation.” Important issues still deserve to be addressed and regulated in order to ensure the real legitimacy of the assignation of school places.

LEXTAL advised Columbus A/S in the sales transaction of its Estonian and Lithuanian subsidiaries. Columbus A/S is a Danish company, listed on the Nasdaq Copenhagen Stock Exchange, offering global digitalization solutions and consulting services.
Columbus A/S sold the subsidiaries operating in Estonia and Lithuania to its Baltic management. Both companies continue to operate under the franchise of Columbus. The sale was a part of the strategy Focus 23 of Columbus A/S, aimed at strengthening the focus of the company on major key markets.

The project was led by partner Ants Karu. Team members were Diana Minumets, Martin Nikolaev and from the Lithuanian Office, Arunas Sidlauskas.

LEXTAL has successfully carried out a takeover bid for Arco Vara shares by the majority shareholder Alarmo Kapital. The project was led by partner Kristi Sild and assisted by lawyer Kaisa-Maria Kubpart.

According to the securities market regulations, a shareholder who has a majority shareholding in a listed company must make a public offer to other shareholders for the acquisition of their shares. LEXTAL helped to prepare and carry out all the documents and procedures required for the takeover bid. The work included the preparation of the offer notice and the prospectus, communication with the Financial Supervision Authority and Nasdaq Tallinn.

In 2023, five Enefit Green wind turbines will start generating electrical energy in the Purtse wind farm in Ida-Virumaa. In order to launch this project, LEXTAL‘s attorney-at-law Olavi-Jüri Luik and attorney-at-law Ants Karu advised the transaction of share acquisition of Raunistal, developer of wind energy, by renewable energy company Enefit Green. The completed wind farm will symbolize the result of more than 10 years of development work and will cover with its production the entire electricity needs of Lüganuse municipality in Ida-Virumaa county.

Read more: https://www.energia.ee/en/uudised/avaleht/-/newsv2/2021/03/03/enefit-green-ehitab-valmis-purtse-tuulepargi

LEXTAL advised TB Grupp OÜ in the sale of conveyor service, maintenance and components provider Technobalt Eesti OÜ and its Latvian and Lithuanian subsidiaries to Michelin Group.

Acquisition finalization is waiting for the consent of the Competition Authority. The transaction is expected to be completed in April.

LEXTAL team was led by partner Ants Karu.

Read more here (EE).