Finland’s alcohol law dispute shifts from EU procedure to public health risks

Juha Mikkonen

15.06.2026 - Finland’s controversial Alcohol Act reform has taken another turn, after Parliament moved the proposal forward in a form that would expand alcohol home delivery, online distance sales and Alko’s opening hours. The latest developments follow a warning from the Finnish Association for Substance Abuse Prevention, EHYT, which argued that the version developed in committee contained significant changes and should have been notified to the European Commission before reaching the plenary session.

On 9 June, EHYT welcomed amendments made by Parliament’s Social Affairs and Health Committee. The committee had proposed limiting cross-border distance selling to the same alcohol strength limits that apply to domestic retail sales, meaning beverages of up to 8.0% and 5.5% alcohol by volume. It also proposed stricter tax supervision of distance selling and a 24-hour minimum delay between ordering alcohol and home delivery. For EHYT, these were important public health corrections to a proposal that otherwise risked increasing alcohol availability.

The original government proposal, already notified to the European Commission in 2025, would have allowed people in Finland to order alcoholic beverages of up to 80% alcohol by volume from foreign online sellers for home delivery. EHYT argued that the committee’s changes were substantial enough to affect the EU law assessment of the proposal. The organisation therefore asked the Commission to clarify whether the amended version needed to be notified again before the law could be adopted.

The issue then moved quickly in Parliament. On 12 June, the Social Affairs and Health Committee’s report was defeated in plenary by 97 votes to 70, with 32 MPs absent. A counterproposal closer to the government’s original line won instead, and the matter was sent to the Grand Committee. Later the same day, the Grand Committee approved a report based on that counterproposal by 14 votes to 11. The final decision is expected in the plenary session after Midsummer.

This changed the procedural question. As Juha Mikkonen, Executive Director of EHYT, put it, the notification issue was resolved procedurally because the version returning to the plenary is now the original, already notified proposal. But that does not answer the wider question. The committee’s more health-protecting line, which would have restricted the distance selling of strong alcoholic beverages from abroad and strengthened tax control, was voted down before it was ever clarified whether that alternative would have been compatible with EU law.

That is why EHYT’s warning remains central. For Mikkonen, the concern is no longer only about procedure. It is about the combined effect of several changes that would increase alcohol availability at the same time: distance selling of strong alcoholic beverages from abroad, easier home delivery, and the expansion of Alko’s opening hours to Sundays and public holidays. His message is that when alcohol becomes more available, harms also increase, especially among those already drinking the most.

EHYT has also stressed the economic side of the issue. The committee’s stricter tax control proposals would have required distance sellers to notify the authorities, use a mandatory tax identifier, and allow transport companies to hand over alcohol only when the shipment showed that taxes had been paid. Those measures fell away with the committee report. According to EHYT, the Finnish Tax Administration and Customs have estimated that taxes remain unpaid in around 98% of alcohol distance sales orders to Finland, costing the state around 285 million euros annually in alcohol and beverage packaging tax revenue.

Mikkonen also brought the discussion back to the human cost. He pointed out that tens of thousands of children in Finland live in families affected by serious substance problems, and that alcohol is closely connected with violence, domestic harm and homicides. His concern is that bringing alcohol more easily to the home is not only a question of consumer convenience or market access. It also affects families, public services, public finances and public health.

The final parliamentary vote will now decide whether the reform proceeds in its more liberal form. EHYT’s intervention has already shown that the alcohol law dispute is not only a technical debate about EU notification. It is a broader test of whether Finland is willing to weigh market access and delivery convenience against tax control, prevention and the protection of public health.

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Sources: Uusi Suomi Iltalehti Juha Mikkonen´s X post