Who has to comply
Public-sector since 2019; consumer services from 28 June 2025.
Finland is a small, bilingual (Finnish and Swedish) market with very high digital-service adoption. A foreign store selling to Finnish consumers is covered under the EAA-laki on the country-of-consumption basis. The practical catch for cross-border sellers is the bilingual expectation: where a service operates in both Finnish and Swedish, the accessibility statement is expected in both, and foreign sellers who localise only into English can find their statement treated as inadequate.
What the law actually requires
Digipalvelulaki sets the technical bar at WCAG 2.1 Level AA via EN 301 549. On top of it, Laki digitaalisten palveluiden tarjoamisesta (306/2019) + EAA-laki lists these operational duties:
- EN 301 549 / WCAG 2.1 AA
- Bilingual statement (Finnish + Swedish) for services in both languages
- Feedback channel with response within a reasonable time
Penalties and how enforcement actually works
Periodic penalty payments; AVI may publish enforcement decisions.
Finland concentrates enforcement in a single regional authority, the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland (Etelä-Suomen aluehallintovirasto, AVI), which has supervised the public-sector regime since 2019 and now extends to covered private services. AVI's approach is complaint- and assessment-driven, and it may publish its enforcement decisions, adding a transparency dimension. It can impose periodic penalty payments to compel remediation, so the pressure is coercive-conditional (comply or the penalty recurs) rather than a one-off fixed fine.
Reading the Digipalvelulaki at the source
The law is cited as Laki digitaalisten palveluiden tarjoamisesta (Laki digitaalisten palveluiden tarjoamisesta (306/2019) + EAA-laki). Enforcement: Etelä-Suomen aluehallintovirasto (AVI). Key date: 28 June 2025. For the exact wording, read the official reference for Finland listed under Sources below.
Sources
- Saavutettavuusvaatimukset.fi
- European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) · European Commission
Links checked 12 October 2026. Not legal advice. Methodology · About Certvo