Since October 10, a European Union regulation on the transparency of political advertising has been in effect, requiring political advertising to be clearly marked. The sign must show who ordered the ad and how much it cost.

Illimar Pärnamägi, head of the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs' public law department, said it is enough to add a QR code.

"The poster must have a very brief label that refers to a website where all the more detailed information is available. As we saw during the last local elections, this was usually done via a QR code. And the same goes for online ads: a QR code was provided alongside political advertisements," he explained.

According to a new bill under discussion in the Riigikogu, oversight of political ad labeling will fall under the TTJA.

In the recently held local elections, the agency did not yet have this responsibility, but it still received several inquiries, said Merike Koppel, head of the business department. However, it cannot assist with everything.

"For example, we will not assess whether the promises made in ads are misleading election pledges. Nor do we check the flow of money stated in the transparency declaration or verify who actually controls the advertiser. Responsibility for the accuracy of that information lies with the ad buyer," Koppel said.

She added that identifying political advertising may not be so straightforward, and a plan is in place to form an expert commission.

"A key criteria is whether someone was paid for the ad. There are also situations that are not political advertising. There are many nuances, and really, it can only be assessed when a specific case arises. Then we will look at whether there's a sponsor involved, whether the ad was paid for, and where it was published. Was it, for example, a post on a party's social media account, or something created internally? So, unfortunately, it is not as simple as seeing a politician's photo and number and calling it political advertising," Koppel explained.

Before the EU regulation came into force, there were concerns that protests would also be considered political advertising. Pärnamägi clarified that while the definition of political advertising in the regulation is very broad, the obligation to mark and include a transparency notice lies with the advert publisher.

"If you follow the regulation to the letter, then in principle any attempt to influence the legislative process could be considered political advertising. But if you look further, ordinary protests, where people stand in a square and express their views about changing a law somewhere, then that is not considered political advertising under the EU regulation, and thus does not require labeling," Pärnamägi said.

The new rules will increase TTJA's workload. Koppel said the agency hopes to prevent issues primarily through outreach.

"This will definitely require resources, but we will evaluate internally where it makes the most sense to allocate them. We'll focus on training sessions ahead of the next elections, talk about these issues in more detail based on how we interpret them, and also consult the European Commission's interpretations. We will all be learning together. But of course, while we are engaged in monitoring compliance with the political advertising regulation, we'll have to scale back oversight in some other areas. That's just how it is," Koppel said.

The recent local government council elections showed that the fears raised before the regulation took effect were unfounded, said Pärnamägi.

"Before the EU regulation came into force, there were many fears, hesitations, and doubts. But once it took effect — and during the local election campaign at the same time — all major Estonian media outlets handled the marking requirement just fine. No problems arose. So, many of those fears turned out to be unfounded," he concluded.

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