Increase in the amount of corporate fines

The scale of corporate fines is changing significantly, and companies must take the change into account when assessing business risks. In practice, the change means an increase in financial risk. For very large companies, corporate fines may rise to tens of millions of euros in the future.

In spring 2026, the Ministry of Justice of Finland published for comments a draft government proposal for the implementation of the EU Environmental Crime Directive (2024/1203) at the national level. The aim of the directive is to enhance environmental protection by means of criminal law and to harmonise the environmental crime regulations of the EU Member States.

According to the draft government proposal, the Finnish Criminal Code would be amended rather considerably. From the point of view of companies, the most important amendment is the reform of the scale of corporate fines imposed on legal persons. The amendment concerning corporate fines is wide-ranging. The amendment applies to all offences to which the criminal liability of a legal person applies; not just environmental offences.

What is a corporate fine and when can it be imposed?

A corporate fine is a criminal sanction imposed on companies and other legal persons. A legal person in whose activities a crime has been committed on behalf of or for the benefit of a legal person may be sentenced to a corporate fine. The criminal liability of a legal person extends to all types of legal persons, including legal persons governed by public law.

A legal person can be sentenced to a corporate fine, if:

a) a person who is a member of the statutory body or other management or who exercises actual decision-making power in the legal person has been involved in an offence or allowed the commission of an offence; or
b) the care and diligence necessary for preventing an offence have not been observed in the operations of the legal person.

Chapter 9 of the Finnish Criminal Code contains provisions on corporate fines, and corporate fines can be imposed for a number of offences defined in the Finnish Criminal Code. Such offences include, for example, marketing offence, unfair competition offence, business espionage, misuse of a business secret, giving of a bribe in business, occupational safety and health offence, degradation of the environment, nature conservation offence, copyright offence, abuse of inside information, market manipulation and information offence concerning the securities market.

The legal person itself is not considered to be the perpetrator of the crime, as the perpetrator of the crime is always a natural person, i.e. a human being.

A corporate fine can be imposed even if the perpetrator is not identified or sentenced to punishment. A corporate fine does not supersede the criminal liability of the perpetrator.

Scale of corporate fines at present

According to Chapter 9 of the Finnish Criminal Code, which is currently in force, a corporate fine is imposed in certain euros, and its scale is EUR 850–850,000.

The amount of the fine is determined by the nature and extent of the legal person’s negligence, the role of the management and the financial position of the legal person. When assessing the significance of the negligence and the role of the management, the nature and severity of the crime committed, the extent of the criminal activity and the position of the perpetrator in the bodies of the legal person are taken into account. When assessing the financial position, the size of the legal person, its solvency and the financial result of its operations are taken into account.

In practice, the level of corporate fines has remained quite low and significantly below the maximum amount provided by law.

Proposed changes to the scale of corporate fines

According to the draft proposal, the maximum amount of the corporate fine would be raised significantly, and the fine would be partly tied to the turnover of a legal person. The proposed basic scale would be EUR 2,000–3,000,000 and the scale for very large legal persons would be EUR 15,000–40,000,000. For very large legal persons, the corporate fine would be capped at a maximum of 5 per cent of the worldwide turnover.

Compared to the current maximum of EUR 850,000, the upper limit of the basic scale would thus rise more than threefold and the upper limit applicable to very large legal persons up to almost 50 times.

The proposed reform of corporate fines would apply generally to all offences in which the criminal liability of a legal person would be applied.

New environmental offences and harsher penalties

Moreover, according to the draft proposal, the following new offences would be added to the Finnish Criminal Code:

• waste crime
• atmospheric degradation
• placing on the market a product which endangers the environment
• introduced species offence
• destruction of the environment
• deforestation offence

In addition, the current provisions on environmental offences would be specified and the penalties for certain offences would be made more severe.

Other changes

The draft proposal also includes proposals to supplement the grounds for exclusion from environmental offences in public procurement acts and to expand the possibilities for the use of secret coercive measures.

What does the change mean in practice for companies?

The actual government proposal will be submitted to the Parliament of Finland in week 37, i.e. in September 2026. The deadline for the implementation of the EU Environmental Crime Directive has already expired. The parliamentary consideration of the government proposal can hence be expected to proceed swiftly. Companies should be prepared for changes in the legislation in these respects during 2026 or at the beginning of 2027 at the latest.

It is already clear at this stage that the scale of corporate fines, for example, will change substantially in the near future. The change will have a significant impact on companies, as companies must take the change into account when assessing the risks of their business operations.

In practice, the change means an increase in financial risk. For very large companies, the fines may rise to tens of millions of euros, which puts the corporate fine in the same financial category as the penalty payments imposed under EU competition law and data protection violations. It should be noted that the above-mentioned financial risk is related to all crimes that fall within the scope of the criminal liability of a legal person. Companies should assess the adequacy of their compliance programmes extensively and ensure that their business operations meet at least the requirements set by legislation, official regulations and other rules related to their business.

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