Finland

Nokia threatens to leave Finland if communications law not changed

Article published on the 2009-02-01 Latest update 2009-02-03 20:56 TU

Nokia corporate headquarters in Keilaniemi, Espoo, Finland.
(Photo: Wikipedia)

The mobile phone company Nokia has threatened to leave its native country of Finland if a law that prevents companies from monitoring email correspondence is not changed, according to a Finnish newspaper. The company denies the accusation.

The privacy law prevents companies from monitoring their employees’ emails and gives them the right to confidential communication. The change would allow companies to monitor correspondence, but only check the details of the sender, recipient, time/date and size of any attachments.

Nokia is worried about the issue because they recently suspected that an employee sent classified information to one of their rivals, Huawei, in China.

The company has denied the accusations that it will leave Finland.

“Nokia has in no way threatened to move,” said Nokia spokeswoman Arja Suominen, STT news agency reported.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has denied that the multinational is applying pressure to the government.

Nokia has already been accused of breaking the law in relation to the email incident. The company filed a complaint with the police, and began to investigate email correspondence, which essentially is against the law.

No action was taken against Nokia due to lack of evidence.

Nokia is Finland’s largest business, with over 16,000 employees in the country, and 120,000 worldwide. It generates around 1.3 billion euros in tax revenue.