baaskaitse

Baaskaitse (also known as owner's liability or comprehensive personal responsibility) is a concept in Estonian business law. Introduced in 2007, baaskaitse requires the owners or members of private limited companies (layouts) and public limited companies (Aktsiaselts) to take responsibility for the activities of the company.

Under baaskaitse, company owners are responsible for the debts and obligations of the company, regardless of whether they were incurred with the consent of the owner or not. This means that owners can be held personally liable for the company's actions, even if they were not directly involved in the decision-making process. This level of responsibility aims to ensure that company owners act with due care and diligence.

Baaskaitse does not cover negligence or intentional acts, however. For this reason, company owners cannot be held liable for the actions of the company if they happened due to an honest mistake or a third party's actions. Responsibility is also limited if the owner has not held a management position and did not oversee the relevant decisions.

In essence, the goals of introducing baaskaitse have been to hold company owners accountable and to ensure that they manage companies responsibly, furthering Estonia's interests as a business-friendly country. Estonian enterprise developers aim to motivate people to newly establish companies. The underlying idea is that more personal responsibility encourages people to work with smaller companies, investing in businesses in Estonia.