Legislative Review April 10–16, 2026
COMMERCIAL LAW AND CORPORATE LAW
REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION
– Amendments to construction regulations specify which building elements are to be included in the building area
– Amendments to building energy efficiency regulations introduce EU directive requirements
ENERGY
– Transport energy quality requirements and the procedure for ensuring compliance with quality requirements and monitoring of the transport energy market
– Requirements for informing consumers about the type, composition, comparable prices of transport energy, and their calculation
– A solidarity payment for fuel traders will be introduced
– Legal framework for renewable energy in the EU after 2030
– SPRK organizes a consensus meeting on amendments to the methodology for calculating natural gas transmission system service tariffs
– In March, Latvia produced 15% more electricity than consumed
LABOR LAW
– Employer’s right to issue a notice of termination during another notice period
REGULATED LAW
– Amendment to the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development
– Desire to improve the regulation of protective zone establishment and use
– Right of a party to the proceedings to request information not available in the case materials under the Freedom of Information Law
– The amount of support for forestry activity restrictions in micro-reserves complies with the Constitution
BANKING AND FINANCIAL LAW
– Debt discharge cannot be denied if the debtor has faithfully fulfilled the plan
– Latvia’s Fiscal Structural Plan 2025-2028 Progress Report
– On the implementation of Cohesion Policy EU funds, Recovery Fund, EEA, Norway, and Switzerland grant investments in Latvia
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
– Main environmental control priorities until 2031 determined in areas with the greatest environmental impact
– Residents invited to ask experts questions
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) & DATA PROTECTION ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
– Higher education institutions from Latvia involved in the development of an intellectual property education program
– The Patent Office and the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property have signed a memorandum on further cooperation
TAXES
– Amendments to the Law on Limiting the Price Increase of Petroleum Products
CUSTOMS
DISPUTE RESOLUTION
– Protection for residents who unknowingly acquired real estate obtained through criminal means
– The Senate upholds the judgment on returning a criminally acquired apartment to its original owner
– The accused will have to serve a sentence for circumventing a communication ban using bank payment orders
– The Senate recognizes that a communication cable manhole cannot be legally equated to a storage facility
– The right of a person who has paid bail in criminal proceedings on behalf of another person to claim compensation for damages incurred in criminal proceedings
– A formal refusal to provide information about a person is not permissible if the requested data is necessary to file a civil claim in court
– The investigator’s opinion, as the lead official, that property has a lawful origin is not considered a final decision concluding criminal proceedings
– The state has not provided adequate protection against excessive entertainment noise
COMMERCIAL LAW AND CORPORATE LAW
Draft Legal Acts
Planned amendments provide for the exclusion of inactive and outdated sole proprietorships and farms from the register (Project ID: 26-TA-783)
Submitted for public consultation from April 14–28, 2026
The amendments to the Law on the Entry into Force of the Commercial Law aim to ensure the exclusion of inactive and outdated individual (family) enterprises, peasant, fishing, and rural artisan farms from the enterprise register journal and to update the personal data of active entities’ owners.
An enterprise for which data has not been updated by the end of the year will be excluded from the register by March 1, 2027. An enterprise whose owner is a deceased person (information about the death received before January 1, 2024) will also be excluded.
The draft law provides for the possibility to restore the activity of an excluded entity within one year after its exclusion from the enterprise register. An heir, by submitting an application and attaching a certificate of inheritance, may request the Register to make a decision on the restoration of the respective entity’s activity.
REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION
Draft Legal Acts
Amendments to construction regulations specify which building elements are to be included in the building area (Project ID: 26-TA-510)
Submitted for public consultation until April 28, 2026
Amendments to Cabinet Regulation No. 693 “General Building Requirements Construction Regulation LBN 200-21” will clarify the criteria for determining the building area, stipulating that the building area includes only the largest above-ground and underground external perimeter of the building, and will also specify cases when sheds, porches, terraces, external stairs, ramps, and other landscaping elements are included or not included in the building area. In accordance with the clarifications made, the requirements for determining the total area of the building also need to be harmonized with the building area. Additionally, it is planned to stipulate that in the case of building renovation and reconstruction, insofar as it concerns improving the energy efficiency of building structures, changes in the distance of the building’s enclosing structures to other buildings or land unit boundaries will not be re-evaluated, nor will the building density and building intensity of such a building be re-evaluated.
Amendments to building energy efficiency regulations introduce EU directive requirements (Project ID: 26-TA-329)
Submitted for public consultation until April 28, 2026
Amendments to Cabinet Regulation No. 730 “Minimum Energy Performance Requirements for Existing Buildings” are intended to transpose Directive No. 2024/1275 into Latvian law. The amendments foresee clarifying requirements for building technical systems, especially regarding non-residential buildings. In the future, environmental quality monitoring systems will only be mandatory if their implementation is technically and economically justified, and they will not be required for residential buildings. In the public building sector, a requirement to install solar energy equipment is set, if feasible. Requirements for sustainable mobility have been significantly supplemented – criteria for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and bicycle parking spaces in buildings with a large number of parking spaces have been defined. It is planned that the amendments will come into force by May 29, 2026.
ENERGY
Legal Acts
Transport energy quality requirements and the procedure for ensuring compliance with quality requirements and monitoring of the transport energy market (Promulgated version)
Adopted at Cabinet meeting on April 14, 2026
The draft regulation has been developed to combine and update the transport energy quality standards previously included in various Cabinet regulations into one legal act – transport energy quality indicators and criteria, as well as transport energy market surveillance conditions.
Requirements for informing consumers about the type, composition, comparable prices of transport energy, and their calculation (Promulgated version)
Adopted by Cabinet on April 14, 2026
The regulations set forth requirements applicable to publicly accessible refueling or charging points, as well as other publicly accessible transport energy sales points, for informing consumers about the type, origin, composition, properties, and comparable prices of transport energy. Additionally, the regulations provide for the procedure for calculating comparable transport energy prices.
A solidarity payment for fuel traders will be introduced (Project ID: 26-TA-743)
Adopted at Cabinet meeting on April 14, 2026
The draft law establishes a solidarity payment obligation for retail fuel traders (gasoline and diesel) if their actual retail price exceeds the objectively calculated indicative retail price by more than 3%. The solidarity payment is a temporary mechanism applied when retail fuel prices significantly exceed changes in petroleum product prices on world markets, thereby mitigating the impact of rising fuel prices on the national economy. The solidarity payment mechanism will not be applied automatically, but its activation will be determined by the Cabinet, specifying a concrete application period, threshold, and methodology for calculating indicative prices (IP).
Draft Legal Acts
Legal framework for renewable energy in the EU after 2030 (EC Initiative)
Submitted for public consultation from March 20, 2026 – June 12, 2026
The European Commission (EC) plans how to achieve the European Union’s (EU) climate target by 2040 using renewable energy. The target aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% in the most cost-effective way. The EC plans to adopt a legislative proposal by the end of the year to achieve the aforementioned target.
Currently effective legal acts relate to the EU’s climate target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030.
Industry News
SPRK organizes a consensus meeting on amendments to the methodology for calculating natural gas transmission system service tariffs (read more here)
The meeting will take place remotely on April 21, 2026, at 2:00 PM
A consensus meeting on the public consultation announced by SPRK on December 4, 2025, regarding the draft methodology for calculating natural gas transmission system service tariffs. The meeting will present opinions, proposals, and comments received during the consultation. All meeting participants will have the opportunity to ask questions to SPRK representatives and discuss the submitted proposals.
In March, Latvia produced 15% more electricity than consumed (AST: News)
In March, the volume of electricity produced and supplied to the grid in Latvia exceeded consumption, with a total of 765 GWh produced and 666 GWh consumed.
In Latvia, the volume of electricity produced in March increased by 7% compared to February, however, the total generation in the Baltic States decreased by 3% in March. Production decreased by 17% in Estonia and by 3% in Lithuania.
In Latvia, the volume of electricity consumed in March decreased by 8% compared to February. The total electricity consumption in the Baltic States decreased by 18%, while in Estonia by 19% and in Lithuania by 24%.
LABOR LAW
Case Law
Employer’s right to issue a notice of termination during another notice period (Case No. SKC-53/2026)
Judgment adopted on April 9, 2026
In June 2023, the employer terminated the employee’s employment contract due to staff reduction. During the notice period, the employee fell ill and was on long-term sick leave, therefore requesting that this period not be included in the notice period. The employee’s sick leave continued for more than six months, so in 2024, the employer issued a second notice of termination based on the employee’s long-term incapacity for work.
The Senate recognized that the employment relationship continues during the notice period, therefore a new ground for termination may arise during this period. The employer has the right to issue a second notice of termination if it is based on other facts that arose later, and it is not considered an amendment to the first notice. The Senate also emphasized that the employee’s right not to include the sick leave period in the notice period is not absolute and cannot prevent the employer from using the legal grounds for termination due to long-term incapacity for work. The Senate also concluded that the withdrawal of the first notice is not a mandatory prerequisite for issuing the second notice, as the purpose of withdrawal is the continuation of the employment relationship, which was not the employer’s intention in this case.
REGULATED LAW
Legal Acts
Amendment to the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development (Promulgated version)
Enters into force on April 23, 2026
The amendments stipulate that the ban on importing agricultural and feed products from Russia and Belarus, or goods of their origin from other countries, into Latvia will continue until July 1, 2027. .
Draft Legal Acts
Desire to improve the regulation of protective zone establishment and use (Draft Law No. 1305/Lp14)
Submitted to Saeima committee on April 16, 2026
The draft law “Amendments to the Law on Protective Zones” provides for establishing a protective zone up to 30 meters wide along the state border strip and patrol zone. It is planned that economic activity and construction in the protective zone will be possible after coordination with the Ministry of Defense, and the alienation of real estate will require the consent of the Ministry of Defense. Additionally, a procedure for felling potentially hazardous trees will be established.
Case Law
Right of a party to the proceedings to request information not available in the case materials under the Freedom of Information Law (Case No. SKA-494/2026)
Decision adopted on April 10, 2026
The Public Utilities Commission (SPRK) adopted a decision approving the differentiated tariffs for the natural gas distribution system service of the Joint Stock Company. The Joint Stock Company approached SPRK requesting information necessary to appeal the said decision. SPRK replied that the requested information contained a commercial secret, therefore it was classified as restricted access. SPRK’s response only included publicly available information.
The Joint Stock Company considered the information provided by SPRK to be incomplete, therefore it appealed to the Administrative Regional Court, requesting that SPRK be ordered to provide the Applicant with the requested information. The judge of the Administrative Regional Court refused to accept this application, as another case for the annulment of the said decision had already been initiated based on the Applicant’s application, within which the Applicant could exercise its procedural rights to access the case materials and request the court to obtain additional evidence.
The Senate has recognized that a situation where a party to the proceedings wishes to receive information from the case materials is distinct from a situation where a party to the proceedings wishes to obtain information not included in the case materials. In the first case, the party to the proceedings exercises its procedural rights, but in the second case, its rights to information provided for in the Freedom of Information Law. To determine the procedure by which a person can exercise their right to access specific information, it is important whether the disputed information is or is not included in the materials of the respective case. It does not follow from the judge’s decision that the judge had found that the initiated case contains the information requested by the applicant. In such circumstances, it must be recognized that the judge prematurely indicated that the applicant cannot request the information requested in the application to SPRK by submitting an application in accordance with the procedure established by the Freedom of Information Law. The Senate annulled the judge’s decision in its entirety and referred the matter for new consideration.
The amount of support for forestry activity restrictions in micro-reserves complies with the Constitution (Case No. 2025-09-03)
Judgment adopted on April 10, 2026
Two cases were initiated in the Constitutional Court based on constitutional complaints from private individuals, which were later merged. Micro-reserves were established on the applicants’ properties for the protection of specially protected bird species, and restrictions on economic activity were imposed therein. The applicants considered that the determined support for these restrictions was disproportionately small, thereby restricting their property rights, and also violating the principle of legal equality, as all forest owners were granted the same amount of support, without evaluating each property individually (its individual value, circumstances, etc.).
The Court concluded that the annual support allocation system is based on the premise that support is provided to forest owners in the long term and its purpose is not to cover the individually calculated lost profit for each forest owner, but rather the lost profit calculated based on average indicators. The Constitutional Court emphasized that the Cabinet has discretion to determine the amount of compensation to be granted for restrictions on property rights. In the specific case, the Cabinet cannot and is not obliged to provide such a differentiated approach that would take into account the individual circumstances of each specific forest owner. The compensation is based on an objective and rational calculation method.
BANKING AND FINANCIAL LAW
Case Law
Debt discharge cannot be denied if the debtor has faithfully fulfilled the plan (Case No. SPC-3/2026)
Decision adopted on April 9, 2026
By a district court judgment in 2024, the insolvency process of a natural person was declared. Later, the completion of the natural person’s bankruptcy procedure, the debt discharge plan, and the debt discharge procedure were approved. 2025. In 2026, the natural person submitted an application to the court, requesting to terminate the debt discharge procedure and the insolvency process, as well as to discharge obligations that were not fulfilled during the debt discharge procedure. The court terminated the debtor’s debt discharge procedure and insolvency process, without releasing him from the remaining obligations.
It follows from legal norms that when considering an application for termination of the debt discharge procedure, the court must assess whether the debtor has faithfully carried out the actions specified in the debt discharge plan. In the case, it was found that the debtor had paid even more than the planned 35% of the obligations to creditors within a year, however, the court denied debt discharge, considering that part of the income was unjustifiably allocated to the maintenance of a third party. The Senate indicated that in insolvency proceedings, it is essential to observe the principle of good faith and to assess whether the debtor has actually fulfilled the plan and has not abused his rights. At the same time, it was emphasized that the debtor has the right to retain part of the income for his own maintenance and that of dependents, and these expenses also include basic family needs. Furthermore, the Senate emphasized that to deny debt discharge, the violation must be significant and affect the interests of creditors.
Industry News
Latvia’s Fiscal Structural Plan 2025-2028 Progress Report (Project ID: 26-TA-787)
Adopted at Cabinet meeting on April 14, 2026
The Cabinet approved Latvia’s Fiscal Structural Plan 2025–2028 Progress Report for 2026, which is part of the new EU economic governance framework and must also be submitted to the European Commission. The report provides information on the fulfillment of fiscal commitments, progress on structural reforms and investments, as well as updated macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts covering the period up to 2030, serving as a basis for determining national budget priorities.
After two years of stagnation, the Latvian economy resumed growth in 2025, with GDP increasing by 2.1%, mainly driven by investments, absorption of EU funds, and activation of lending. Growth is projected to accelerate to 2.6% in 2026, remaining at a similar level thereafter, while inflation will gradually decrease from 2.9% to around 2.3% in the medium term. The general government budget deficit reached 2.4% of GDP in 2025, but is projected to be 3% of GDP in 2026, with a tendency to increase in subsequent years, mainly due to defense expenditures. Fiscal space will become increasingly limited in the medium term, indicating the need to make decisions on reducing expenditures or increasing revenues.
On the implementation of Cohesion Policy EU funds, Recovery Fund, EEA, Norway, and Switzerland grant investments in Latvia (Project ID: 26-TA-369)
Adopted at Cabinet meeting on April 14, 2026
The Ministry of Finance’s semi-annual report indicates a significant increase in the pace of EU funds and Recovery Fund investments in Latvia. The implementation of the Recovery Fund is nearing completion, and Latvia has already received approximately 75% of the available funding. Active reallocation of funding is being carried out for priority projects, including healthcare, strengthening entrepreneurship, and developing the defense sector.
The next 2028–2034 EU funds programming period is also being prepared, as well as new EEA, Norway, and Switzerland programs that will continue investments in education, research, health, and civil protection.
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Industry News
Main environmental control priorities until 2031 determined in areas with the greatest environmental impact (read more here)
Plan period: 2026-2031
The State Environmental Service (VVD) has published the Environmental Inspection Plan for the next 6 years in the field of polluting activities, determining how compliance of companies and other activities with environmental requirements will be assessed throughout Latvia. In the next six-year period, the greatest impact has been identified in three priority areas: (1) incineration plants and compliance with emission requirements; (2) wastewater treatment plants; (3) illegal waste management and cross-border shipments thereof.
Residents invited to ask experts questions (read more here)
To help find answers, a Consultation Forum has been established within the LIFE LATESTadapt project, where anyone can ask questions and receive expert advice on improving the territory. The Consultation Forum can also be useful for architects, planners, and engineers interested in implementing nature-based solutions in a specific urban area, as well as for schoolchildren and students looking for ideas for their research topics on climate change adaptation.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) & DATA PROTECTION
Industry News
Higher education institutions from Latvia involved in the development of an intellectual property education program (Patent Office)
The University of Latvia, Riga Stradiņš University, and the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies have joined the development of a new modular education program initiated by the European Patent Office (EPO). The program is intended for master’s and doctoral students. The EPO offers this program as a comprehensive learning experience, available free of charge to selected universities.
The Patent Office and the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property have signed a memorandum on further cooperation (Patent Office)
Signed in Riga on April 7, 2026
The Patent Office and the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property signed a memorandum of understanding, which provides for further strengthening of cooperation in both external activities of the institutions and in improving daily work processes.
According to the memorandum, the cooperation between the parties will focus on the exchange of experience, knowledge, and best practices in the field of intellectual property, including the daily work of institutions, public awareness, and youth education activities. The memorandum also provides for the organization of joint online and in-person conferences, seminars, and other educational events for small and medium-sized enterprises, technology transfer organizations, and other cooperation partners.
TAXES
Draft Legal Acts
Amendments to the Law on Limiting the Price Increase of Petroleum Products (Draft Law No. 1313/Lp14)
Submitted to Saeima on April 15, 2026
The aim of the draft law is to limit the negative impact of an extraordinary increase in fuel prices on the national economy, households, and public sector services by establishing time-limited measures for reducing fuel prices.
The draft law complies with COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2003/96/EC, which restructures the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity, setting a minimum rate of 330 Euro /1000 l that all EU Member States must observe. This minimum serves as a single market protection mechanism to prevent tax dumping. By strengthening the minimum rate in law, transport costs for Latvian residents would decrease, and fuel prices would significantly drop. This would also lead to lower costs for businesses, which in turn could reduce price pressure and favorably affect society. The reduction of excise duty rates is a temporary measure from May 1, 2026 – October 31, 2026.
CUSTOMS
Industry News
New amendments to steel import safeguard measures adopted (read more here)
Commission Implementing Regulation published on April 10, 2026.
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/846 amends Regulation (EU) 2019/159 on safeguard measures concerning imports of steel, establishing definitive safeguard measures against imports of certain steel products.
To ensure that bars and rods are imported in the correct categories that reflect traditional trade flows, and to mitigate import pressure on the EU manufacturing industry, the regulation has created new TARIC codes that distinguish reinforced bars or bars with indentations, ribs, grooves, or other deformations obtained during the rolling process from others.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Draft Legal Acts
Protection for residents who unknowingly acquired real estate obtained through criminal means (Draft Law No. 1243/Lp14)
Adopted in 1st reading on March 5, 2026; Awaiting proposals until April 28, 2026.
The aim of the amendments is not to change the fundamental principle that criminally acquired property belongs to the original owner, but to provide the court with the possibility, in atypical exceptional cases, to deviate from a mechanical application of the norm if it would lead to obviously unjust and disproportionate consequences for the bona fide acquirer.
The draft law provides the court with the option to leave the real estate in the possession of the bona fide acquirer if the property rights are registered in the public register. This would only be possible if returning the property to the victim in the specific situation would not be a fair solution, and the court would have to specifically justify such a decision, evaluating all circumstances in each individual case.
The amendments will be applicable from January 1, 2026, if the bona fide acquirer of the property applies to the Supreme Court by July 1, 2026, with a request to consider the issue of ownership of criminally acquired property.
Case Law
The Senate upholds the judgment on returning a criminally acquired apartment to its original owner (Case SKK-198/2026)
Decision adopted on April 13, 2026
An employee of a commercial company, authorized by the employer to freely dispose of and manage its property, was accused of abusing the authorization by repeatedly borrowing funds on behalf of the principal, renting out apartments belonging to the principal, and concluding a purchase agreement for an apartment belonging to the principal with himself without payment of the purchase price, and then selling the acquired apartment to another person. The funds received as a result of these actions were used by the accused to cover debts and for other personal needs.
The Economic Affairs Court found the accused guilty and punished him for large-scale embezzlement, using a forged document for mercenary purposes, and large-scale money laundering. The unlawfully alienated apartment was not returned to the injured commercial company by the court’s judgment but was left to the owners whom the court recognized as bona fide acquirers.
Having examined the prosecutor’s appeal protest and the appeal of the injured company’s representative, the Riga Regional Court found that the judgment regarding the handling of the seized property did not comply with the law, as it was based solely on the court’s subjective conviction of fairness, therefore the disputed apartment was recognized as criminally acquired property and returned to the injured commercial company. The accused first unlawfully appropriated the apartment specifically entrusted to him, while the funds later obtained from the sale of the apartment are not considered property entrusted to the accused or at his disposal, which is a prerequisite for establishing embezzlement.
The Senate indicated that the first instance court’s conclusions that the relevant legal regulation (Section 360, Paragraph one of the Criminal Procedure Law) regarding the return of criminally acquired property to the victim would not be applicable in the specific case, because the priority of restoring the previous legal status was a conscious choice of the legislator and it does not follow from the existing legal regulation, its purpose, and the law’s plan that it could not apply to the circumstances of the case under consideration.
The accused will have to serve a sentence for circumventing a communication ban using bank payment orders (Case SKK-208/2026)
Decision adopted on April 2, 2026
The accused was prohibited from communicating with the mother of his child, however, during this prohibition, he transferred funds to her bank account 29 times and indicated various texts of a domestic nature about his dreams, wishes, feelings, as well as mutual litigation processes between him and the recipient in the “Information to recipient” field of the payment order.
The Senate emphasized in its decision that text included in a bank payment order that is not related to the payment is considered communication if confirmed by the content, purpose, and specific circumstances of the text. In the Senate’s view, it is not decisive that internet banking is generally not intended for mutual communication, as it is essential that such a communication mechanism could be used and that the accused actually used it to purposefully convey information at a time when other means of communication were denied to him. The Senate also indicated that multiple interrelated transfers constitute a single continuous criminal offense with a common intent and purpose, and that paying child support itself does not justify violating a communication ban if the payment purpose includes unrelated content.
The Senate recognizes that a communication cable manhole cannot be legally equated to a storage facility (Case SKK-50/2026)
Published on April 9, 2026
It follows from the case materials that the accused successively approached two underground cable manholes, opened them, cut the communication cables located underground, and then pulled out the cables cut at both ends and placed them by the fence across the street.
The Senate recognized that the regional court rightly found the theft to be completed, as the accused had gained physical control over the property through gradual actions, and that voluntary withdrawal from a completed criminal offense is not possible. However, the regional court’s decision erroneously concluded that the accused committed theft from a storage facility. In the Senate’s view, a cable manhole, which is considered an engineering structure, forms a unified infrastructure system with the cables laid therein, as such cables are not intended to be operated separately. Therefore, such a cable manhole cannot be considered a storage facility intended for the permanent or temporary storage of material values. Furthermore, the regional court’s decision is contradictory on the issue of the value of the stolen property – the court found the theft of a certain length of cable to be proven, but determined its value based on the victim’s expense estimate and witness testimony, which estimated a different cable length.
The right of a person who has paid bail in criminal proceedings on behalf of another person to claim compensation for damages incurred in criminal proceedings (Case SKA-268/2026)
A person who has paid bail in criminal proceedings on behalf of another person is generally considered to have the right to claim compensation for damages incurred in criminal proceedings due to unlawful actions of an institution, prosecutor’s office, or court.
Whether the prerequisites for such compensation for damages have been met (including whether a causal link can be established between the unlawful actions of the institution, prosecutor’s office, or court and the damages indicated by the private person, and whether the basis and amount of compensation for damages have been proven) is a substantive question of the merits of the application.
A formal refusal to provide information about a person is not permissible if the requested data is necessary to file a civil claim in court (Case SKA-178/2026)
Judgment adopted on February 27, 2026
If the state has stipulated in legal norms that a person, in order to file a civil claim in court, must indicate the defendant’s personal data in the statement of claim, then the state must also ensure, as far as possible, that the person can obtain this data, otherwise the person’s opportunities to apply to court are unjustifiably restricted.
In applying Sub-paragraph 6.5 of Cabinet Regulation No. 563 “Procedure for Issuing Information Included in the Register of Natural Persons,” it must be taken into account that the person who submitted the information request may not possess the information available in the Register of Natural Persons, which is also the reason why the person requests the institution to issue this information. Therefore, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, when reviewing a person’s information request, must not act formally, and must engage and, from its side, try to provide support to the person in identifying the data subject. When assessing whether the information request contains sufficient information to identify the persons whose data are requested, it must also be considered whether the institution has done everything possible on its part to identify the data subject.
The investigator’s opinion, as the lead official, that property has a lawful origin is not considered a final decision concluding criminal proceedings (Case SKA-290/2026)
Decision adopted on January 27, 2026
The investigator’s opinion, as the lead official, that property has a lawful origin is not considered a final decision concluding criminal proceedings, on the basis of which a person can claim compensation for damages due to unlawful actions of an institution related to the seizure of property.
Considering the investigator’s opinion, as the lead official, that property has a lawful origin, as a final decision resolving the property issue in criminal proceedings, would exclude the possibility for the prosecutor to ask the court to recognize the property as criminally acquired. Such a result would circumvent the division of investigation and prosecution functions and disrupt the nature of the relationship between the investigator and the prosecutor at the prosecution stage.
The state has not provided adequate protection against excessive entertainment noise (Case 2025-18-03)
Judgment adopted on April 14, 2026
The judgment declared the regulation on noise assessment and management to be non-compliant with the Constitution, insofar as it does not provide adequate protection against excessive entertainment noise. The Constitutional Court concluded that the Saeima has not decided on the most essential issues regarding the criteria by which it could be concluded that entertainment noise is excessive and disproportionately restricts a person’s fundamental rights. Likewise, the Saeima has not decided on the most essential issues regarding the framework of the control process and the type, subject, and applicator of responsibility. Furthermore, possible administrative legal remedies and the consequences of their application have not been evaluated, nor has it been regulated whether and how the protection of fundamental rights will be ensured in municipalities that do not issue binding regulations on entertainment noise. Thus, the Saeima itself has not established the basic principles for the assessment, control, and related responsibility of such noise, and therefore the Cabinet and local governments are not appropriately authorized in this area.
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VIKTORIJA Cherkas
PARTNER, ATTORNEY AT LAW
Viktorija is a Latvian legal expert recognized by international directories in project management and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), including energy projects (development of wind and solar park projects).
Viktorija also provides legal advice for day-to-day business operations – from company formation, management, shareholder relations, restructuring, and other business-related matters. At the same time, Viktorija is an expert in real estate development, acquisition, and leasing, and provides assistance to individuals and companies regarding relocation or property acquisition in Spain.
ALISA LEŠKOVIČA
PARTNER, ATTORNEY AT LAW
Alisa is an experienced advocate and a partner at RockBridge Legal. Since 2008, Alisa has advised clients and provided legal assistance in complex tax and customs matters.
Alisa also specializes in anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, and compliance matters. Alisa has significant experience in corporate crime and investigation cases related to tax, customs, and sanctions issues.
Viktorija Jarkina-Toča
PARTNER, ATTORNEY AT LAW
Dr. iur. Viktorija Jarkina is a partner at RockBridge Legal, ranked by international legal directories Chambers Europe, Chambers Global, Best Lawyers, and Legal 500 among the leading criminal defense attorneys in Latvia.
Viktorija specializes in shareholder disputes, civil and commercial litigation, as well as criminal law, providing representation and defense in white-collar crime cases, including money laundering and environmental offenses. Additionally, Viktorija has extensive experience working with franchises, providing full legal assistance related to franchising.