The ERJK issued Ossinovski a warning and imposed a conditional fine of €500 over campaign ads placed for the men's ice hockey world championships Group B matches, hosted in Tallinn last April–May.

Ossinovski was featured as the face of a campaign backing the Estonian men's team in that competition.

According to the committee, these constituted personal ads and effectively a donation, meaning Ossinovski must bear their cost.

The case reached the committee after Chair of Tallinn City Council's audit committee Manuela Pihlap (Center) filed a complaint regarding the advertisements.

ERJK chair Liisa Oviir said that since the advertising service was provided by a legal entity but Ossinovski had not paid for it, it was considered an illegal donation.

"At a previous meeting on October 23, the committee reviewed the responses submitted by Jevgeni Ossinovski to our letter of opinion and objections. They were analyzed, and the committee upheld its initial position that no new information had been presented to warrant a review of the decision. As a result, the decision was made to issue a notice to Jevgeni Ossinovski to return the prohibited donation," Oviir said. She added that the advertisement cost €370.

The ERJK decision means that the €500 fine will apply if Ossinovski fails to respond to the committee's decision and does not pay for the advertisement. He is also permitted to challenge the committee's decision in court.

ERJK rules car owners union's anti-Reform/SDE/Eesti 200 social media ads not illegal donations

In a separate case reviewed during the same period, the ERJK opted not to pursue a case regarding election advertising by members of the Estonian car owners' union (Autoomanike Liit) board, which came much closer to last month's local elections.

This group had issued a significant number of negative posts on its Facebook page concerning the car tax and relating to politicians from the Reform Party, SDE, and Eesti 200, the three parties in office when the car tax came in at the start of this year.

The complainants to the committee asked whether this could be considered positive advertising — and thus an illegal donation — for the Center Party, Parempoolsed, and Isamaa, particularly given that members of the organization were running in the elections on those parties' lists.

"After analyzing the inquiries and posts published by the car owners' union, the committee unanimously found that this issue does not fall within the scope of the committee's mandate under the Political Parties Act," Oviir said on this matter.

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