Temporary service provisions

According to EU law, service providers - companies and self-employed persons of another EU Member State (e.g. in the fields of regulated professions or tourist guide services) have the right to provide services on a temporary basis without registering a company or branch in Latvia. Whether a planned business activity can be considered as "temporary" depends on the nature and duration of this activity, however, in some cases (see table), such services must be notified to the responsible authority before real service activity is started in Latvia.

Temporary provision of services in another EU Member State may be useful when a company or service provider wants to provide services only temporarily to a specific customer in a relevant market or wishes to conduct market research in that country before opening a branch or company.

In Latvia, specific regulations regarding providing temporary services have been adopted in four service sectors – tour guide services in Riga and Daugavpils, in regulated professions, in the handling of food and in the beauty sector.

Freedom to Provide Services Law (Article 15) determines the criteria that the responsible authorities must take into account when deciding on the temporary economic activity of the service provider of another Member State in the territory of Latvia:

• the temporary nature of the service provider's activities (duration, frequency, periodicity and continuity of the service);
• regular residence of the service provider in Latvia and customer engagement;
• the service provider in the territory of Latvia has established a legal address or unit for the regular provision of the service;
• the nature of the case for the provision of the service, which indicates that the provision of the service is non-recurring and at a significant interval;
• the temporary nature of the provision of the service, which may be assessed differently for each particular short-term service provider.

A service provider of another EU Member State providing a temporary service in Latvia may not be subject to a restriction unless it is justified by compliance with the requirements of public order and safety, human life and health or environmental protection and is proportionate.

Accordingly, a service provider of another EU Member State providing a temporary service in Latvia may not be limited to:

• obliging him to register as a performer of economic activity;
• obliging him to obtain an authorisation;
• prohibiting him from establishing the infrastructure of a specific type or form necessary for the provision of a specific short-term service;
• obliging him to establish contractual obligations with the recipient which impede or restrict the right to provide a short-term service freely;
• obliging him to obtain a professional competence or service quality document for the provision of a specific short-term service in the responsible authority;
• defining to him the requirements relating to the use of industrial goods in the supply of a service which may affect the offering or availability of the service on the market, as well as the composition or characteristics of the service, except where these requirements arise from the safety and health requirements at work.

However, it should be noted that there are exceptions in certain areas of services (such as lawyer, sworn notary, debt recovery services, statutory audit services for annual accounts, waste transport services, public services, etc.) and the provision of short-term services in these areas is limited.

Also, temporarily providing services in Latvia a company or self-employed person of another EU Member State must comply with the general requirements of Latvia, incl. payment of taxes, employment, environmental safety, etc., equally as a service provider registered in Latvia.

Latvian companies and service providers also have the right to provide temporary services in other EU Member States. More detailed information can be found at the Common Service Contact Points of other EU Member States.