Further to our earlier post regarding Finland’s hundreds of sanctions investigations, we are pleased to acknowledge the help of Finnish Customs in supplying newly-updated information on the investigations so far commenced for breaches of the EU’s trade sanctions. These figures do not include investigations relating to financial sanctions.
While information on the penalties/sentences imposed is not available it can be noted that:
- Petty regulation offences are punishable only by fines;
- Regulation offences are punishable by fine or imprisonment for a maximum of 2 years; and
- Aggravated regulation offences are punishable by imprisonment of at least 4 months and not more than 4 years.
The updated figures include concluded enforcement actions up to 17 September 2025, and include some revisions to the previously supplied data for the previous years.
As previously noted the reduction in the punishment of petty regulation offences between 2023 and 2024 is most likely to be attributed to the closures of the land crossings into Russia.
| Year | Petty Regulation Offence | Regulation Offence | Aggravated Regulation Offence | Total |
| 2022 | 104 | 163 | 39 | 306 |
| 2023 | 353 | 81 | 58 | 492 |
| 2024 | 5 | 59 | 35 | 99 |
| 2025 | 2 | 15 | 9 | 26 |
| Total | 464 | 318 | 141 | 923 |