Summary

In the regulations directed at consumers, the standard of greater legal clarity should be applied. In today’s Estonian legal space, this especially strict standard is clearly not met by the legal framework for genetic tests aimed at consumers. In addition to the fact that in the case of genetic tests aimed at consumers, legal clarity is an important aspect from the consumer’s perspective, such services also have significant impact on the health care system when people start making health-related decisions based on the results of genetic tests. Regardless of the above, we could draw a huge question mark on the Estonian legal landscape at a time when there are on-going disputes in the European Union over whether consumer-oriented genetic testing services should even be allowed.

The article analyses the applicable requirements for genetic tests for consumers in the Estonian legal space and indicates that it is a largely unregulated matter. The article only addresses the provision of consumer-oriented genetic test services, that is, the issue of whether and how the provision of consumer-oriented genetic test services are regulated in Estonia today. For that, the concept of a consumer-oriented genetic test is specified first. Then, the applicable law is analysed. In the third stage, the legality of consumer-oriented genetic test services is addressed. Then, the requirements applying to the providers of consumer-oriented genetic test services are summarised based on the above. Finally, the topical issues of consumer-oriented genetic tests at the European Union level, which could potentially significantly impact the Estonian legal space in the future, are briefly introduced.