Guidance, Supervision and Penalties

The responsibility for the general guidance on and development of the Act on Electronic Communications Services rests with the Ministry of Transport and Communications and The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom. Traficom monitors compliance with the Act on Electronic Communications Services, collects information on security breaches and provides information on security issues. Traficom is also responsible for promoting co- or self-regulatory measures in the sector, provided that such measures ensure that the requirements of the Electronic Communications Services Act are met. The Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman, in turn, oversees the processing of both identification and location data, among other control tasks in accordance with the Act on Electronic Communications Services.

The authorities providing guidance and the supervisory authorities have a wide right of access to information in order to carry out their duties. Public authorities’ right of access does not apply to information on confidential messages, identification data or location data, except in certain exceptional circumstances, which are specifically listed in the law.

Supervisory authorities can oblige an operator that has acted unlawfully to correct its error or omission, even with the threat of a penalty payment and/or the partial or total suspension of operations. In addition, the operator may be guilty of a data protection violation in electronic communications or violation secrecy of communications as defined in the Criminal Code.