FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Kari Marttinen, Laura Leino, Outi Iso-Markku and Aino Lahti-Nuuttila, Erottaja Attorneys Ltd
Please also see 6.1 Liability for Environmental Dam- age or Breaches of Environmental Law .
Please see also 7. Personal Liability , 8.1 Environmen- tal Insurance and 12. Contaminated Land . 5.2 Liability for Historical Environmental Incidents or Damage In general and as mentioned in 5.1 Key Types of Liability , based on the fundamental “polluter pays” principle, anyone who is operating (or has operated) an activity or has taken a measure that has caused a nuisance or damage to the environment is liable for the environmental damage and must restore the con- taminated area to a condition that will not cause harm to health or the environment nor present a hazard to the environment. The principle is contained, for exam- ple, in the Environmental Protection Act. The liability to compensate for environmental dam- age caused by activities carried out in certain areas and resulting from pollution of the water, air or soil or from noise, vibration, radiation, light, heat or smell – or from a similar nuisance – lies with the operator to whom the activity that has caused the environmental damage has been assigned, if the assignee knew or should have known about such environmental dam- age or nuisance (or the threat of the same) at the time of the assignment. With regard to cases where historical environmental incidents or damage have led to soil contamination, please see 12. Contaminated Land . 5.3 Key Defences Environmental liability is strict liability, which means that restoration obligations under the Environmental Protection Act may be ordered even if the pollution is not caused negligently or intentionally. Compensa- tion under the Act on Compensation for Environmental Damage will be paid if it can be shown that there is a probable causal link between the activities and the above-mentioned loss. In assessing the probability of causality, consideration must be given to – among other things – the type of activity and loss and the other possible causes of loss. Even when the loss has not been caused deliberately or negligently, liability for compensation lies with the person whose activity has caused the environmental damage or a person who is comparable to the person
5. Environmental Liability 5.1 Key Types of Liability
Finnish legal environmental liability consists of public liability, civil liability and criminal liability. The key Finn- ish environmental legislation regarding environmental liability is: • the Environmental Protection Act; • the Act on Compensation for Environmental Damage (No 737/1994) ( laki ympäristövahinkojen korvaamisesta ); • the Act on the Remediation of Certain Environ- mental Damages (No 383/2009) ( laki eräiden ympäristövahinkojen korjaamisesta ); and • the Criminal Code. Pursuant to the Environmental Protection Act, any party whose activities have caused the contamination of soil or groundwater is required to restore said soil or groundwater to a condition that will not cause harm to health or the environment nor represent a hazard to the environment. The supervisory authority has the power to order the operator to restore the environment to the state in which it was before the incident or to eliminate the harm to the environment caused by the incident. According to the Act on Compensation for Environ- mental Damage, compensation must be paid for a loss defined as environmental damage that is caused by activities carried out in a certain area and resulting from pollution of the water, air or soil or from noise, vibration, radiation, light, heat or smell (or from a simi- lar nuisance). Finally, according to the Criminal Code, criminal liabil- ity lies with the person within whose sphere of respon- sibility the act or negligence that has caused the inci- dent or damage belongs. In 2024, the EU adopted a new Environmental Crime Directive, which contains minimum provisions on, inter alia, punishable acts and the penalties applicable. The national implementation of the Directive is currently in progress.
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