EFFI won a court case about donation-pages in Finland

By EDRi · January 31, 2007

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Helsinki district court released 31 January 2007 Electronic Frontier Finland
(EFFI) from charges on illegal fund raising on the Internet. The board
members faced criminal charges and it was further demanded that EFFI
transfers all illegal donations totalling over 4000 euros to the state.

The prosecutor, supported by a statement from the Ministry of
Interior Affairs, claimed that EFFI’s unregistered donation-page as part
of their homepages was against the law on the regulation of donation
campaigns. The law requires that all campaigns are registered and must
report to local police. Many other countries do not have this kind of
laws at all.

Mikko Välimäki from law firm Turre Legal, who defended EFFI in the
court, comments: “The case sets a precedent that the law requires
activity such as stopping people on the streets. This kind of campaigns
must be registered and make reports. However, a passive webpage such as
EFFI’s does not count as a ‘campaign’. I am happy to report that this
law will not adversely affect donation webpages of Finnish NGOs in the
future. It was a major threat before this case.”

EFFI’s blog on the subject (in Finnish only, 31.01.2007)
http://www.effi.org/blog/2007-01-31-Tapani-Tarvainen.html

Turre Legal
http://www.turre.com/

(Contribution by Mikko Välimäki – Electronic Frontier Finland)