Finland
Answer ... The Competition Act does not contain a specific definition of ‘cartel’. Section 5 of the Competition Act prohibits all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which have as their object, or which result in, significant prevention, restriction or distortion of competition. As the national provision mirrors closely Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in its substance and in its wording, the interpretation of Section 5 of the Competition Act follows the concepts of ‘agreement’ and ‘concerted practice’ applied in EU competition law.
Finland
Answer ... Section 5 of the Competition Act prohibits all agreements, decisions and practices (including concerted practices) which have the object or effect of significantly impeding, restricting or distorting competition. The provision sets out a list of conduct that is prohibited, in particular. These are agreements, decisions and practices that:
- directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices or any other terms of trade;
- limit or control production, markets, technical development or investments;
- share markets or sources of supply;
- apply dissimilar conditions to similar transactions with other contract parties, placing the latter at a competitive disadvantage; or
- make the conclusion of a contract subject to acceptance by the other party of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial practice, have no connection with the subject of such a contract.
This list is not, however, a numerus clausus; and thus, any conduct that has as its object or effect the significant restriction of competition is prohibited.
Finland
Answer ... Liability under the Competition Act is civil. Finnish law does not provide for criminal sanctions for violations of the Competition Act, excluding criminal liability for providing false or misleading evidence to an authority (here, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA)).
In principle, Competition Act proceedings are administrative in nature and the FCCA makes, as a first-instance authority, findings on anti-competitive conduct. The FCCA’s finding of an infringement can be appealed to the Market Court. The Market Court will impose a fine upon the FCCA’s proposal, in the context of which it will also review the FCCA’s findings on infringement. Decisions of the Market Court can be further appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court, which is the last judicial instance in administrative law matters, including public enforcement of competition law, in Finland.
Finland
Answer ... The Competition Act applies only to undertakings and associations of undertakings. An ‘undertaking’ is defined in Section 4(1) of the Competition Act as “a natural person, and one or more private or public legal persons, that engage in economic activity”. Proceedings pursuant to the Competition Act are of administrative law nature.
Finland
Answer ... Non-Finnish legal persons can be investigated and fined pursuant to the Competition Act. Section 5 of the Competition Act can be applied if a restriction on competition targets Finnish customers or has similar restrictive effects on the Finnish market, there being no requirement that the investigated company be Finnish registered. In practice, the FCCA cooperates with competent competition authorities in other countries when foreign, non-Finnish domiciled companies are being investigated.
Finland
Answer ... The prohibition in Section 5 of the Competition Act has extraterritorial reach. The ‘effects doctrine’ is followed in the Finnish competition law, as in EU competition law: even if a competition restriction is, for instance, concluded or effected outside the territory of Finland, the Competition Act may be applied if the restriction of competition targets Finnish customers or has similar competitive restrictive effects on the Finnish market. In practice, the Competition Act is applied to a restriction of competition which restricts competition in Finland or targets Finnish customers.
Finland
Answer ... The Competition Act sets out a statute of limitations that applies to the imposition of a fine in antitrust cases, including Section 5 of the Competition Act and Article 101 TFEU, which prohibit cartels.
In accordance with Section 19 of the Competition Act, the FCCA shall make a proposal to the Market Court for the imposition of a fine within five years of:
- the date of the infringement; or
- in the case of a single and continuous infringement, the date on which the infringement ended,
failing which no fine may be proposed by the FCCA.
Further, by way of an absolute bar, a fine may not be imposed if no proposal has been made to the Market Court within 10 years of:
- the date of the infringement; or
- the date on which the infringement ended in the case of a single and continuous infringement.
Investigative measures by the FCCA reset the limitation period, which starts anew. Further, investigative measures by the European Commission or a competition authority of another EU member state in a case will suspend the running of the limitation period. The suspension starts from the date on which the first investigative measure is notified to at least one undertaking, or to an association of undertakings, that is subject to the investigation. However, even in the case of investigative measures by the European Commission and/or a competition authority of another EU member state, the absolute bar of 10 years applies to the FCCA’s fine proposal. This period is calculated from either:
- the date of the infringement; or
- in case of a single and continuous infringement, from the date on which the infringement ended.
The application of Section 19 of the Competition Act and the statute of limitations to a bidding cartel were clarified in 2021 by the Supreme Administrative Court, following a preliminary ruling rendered by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (see Case C-450/19, Eltel Group Oy/Eltel Networks Oy). In accordance with the interpretation of the CJEU, in a bidding cartel, an infringement comes to an end when the essential elements – in particular, the overall contract price – of the works contract have been definitively determined.