FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Jussi Laasonen and Saara Järvinen, Ruoholahti Law
1.3 Obligations to Commence Corrective Action Finnish legislation includes an obligation to take cor - rective measures in situations where a product is not safe. If a product has safety defects, or a product or service does not comply with the appropriate requirements, an authority may issue a non-inclusion decision regarding that product or service. A company may be ordered to stop supplying products to retailers, and retailing or otherwise supplying products. The com - pany may also be ordered to alter a product or activ - ity so that it complies with legislation, or take certain measures such as producing documentation required by legislation. In addition, the authority may issue an order requir - ing a product recall. In a recall, the product is col - lected back from consumers or other end users, and information about the risk must be communicated as extensively as possible and targeted in a manner that will reach as many of the consumers who bought the product as possible. 1.4 Obligations to Notify Regulatory Authorities If a company has manufactured, imported, sold, or otherwise distributed a product that poses a risk, the company must notify Tukes about it and co-operate with the Authority. For national notifications, Tukes provides a dedicated form. If the product has been sold in other EU or EEA countries, a notification must also be submitted via the Product Safety Business Alert Gateway. A notification must be made if the product causes, for example, a health hazard, an accident, an incident or a serious event that could have resulted in an acci - dent. Even if the product presents a lower level of risk, notification must still be made if the product is widely distributed or a large number of products have been sold, if the danger is difficult for consumers to detect, or the product is intended for children, young people or the elderly. Notification of a dangerous product is primarily made by the manufacturer located in the EU or, if the manu -
facturer is located outside the EU, a representative of the manufacturer or importer. The notifier must carry out a risk assessment of the product. If a distributor suspects that a product it distributes is not compli - ant, the distributor must ensure that the manufacturer, importer or, if necessary, the distributor itself takes the necessary actions. The notification must be made immediately or without undue delay from the moment the operator becomes aware of the dangerous product. 1.5 Penalties for Breach of Product Safety Obligations In Finland, sanctions for violations of product safety obligations are primarily administrative. An authority may impose a penalty payment on a manufacturer, importer, distributor, authorised representative or pro - vider of an online marketplace where the obligations under the GPSR have been violated intentionally or negligently. The penalty payment may amount to a maximum of 1% of the turnover for the year preced - ing the end of the violation, subject to an upper limit of EUR100,000 for legal persons and EUR10,000 for natural persons. In addition to the penalty payment, a prohibition or enforcement order may be issued against the com - pany, the product may be ordered to be withdrawn from the market, or the company may be required to initiate a recall procedure. If the company fails to comply with an authority’s decision or order, it may be enforced by means of a conditional fine or a notice of enforced performance. Criminal liability is possible in serious cases. However, under the legislation, the same act may not be sub - ject to both a penalty payment and criminal proceed - ings. Penalties for a health offence are imposed in accordance with the Finnish Criminal Code (39/1889). According to Chapter 44 Section 1 of the Criminal Code, a health offence is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for at most six months. In Finland, supervisory authorities publish information on products subject to sales bans and recall proce - dures on the website vaarallisettuotteet.fi. The web -
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