Language and Cultural Features
	Customer Protection - Data Privacy
	Postal Services

Language and Cultural Features

Since 94% of the population speaks Finnish, any DM campaign should be carried out in this language. Nevertheless, a Scandinavian-wide campaign can certainly also be considered since 6% of the population speak Swedish and a cross-over of other Scandinavian languages.

When visiting a Finnish home for the first time, it is customary to bring flowers. It is important to be on time. Sometimes business appointments take place in the sauna.

Source: Fedma

Customer Protection - Data Privacy

Although data protection plays an important role in Finland (around 300 people are employed in monitoring compliance), if the person concerned has not expressly forbidden the storage of his data, personal data may be collected and stored without prior consent. This, however, may only involve general information, not sensitive, personal data.

Addresses may be passed on for direct marketing purposes but the addressee must be informed of this and must have not raised objections. Persons not wishing their addresses to be passed on may have their names added to the Robinson list which is kept by the Finnish Direct Marketing Association.

Robinson list
The Finnish Direct Marketing Association recommends that a check be made against the Robinson list for the consumer sector but this is not stipulated by law. At present, the list contains approx. 45,600 private addresses and a number of company addresses hardly worth the mention.

Source: Fedma, Swiss Post

Postal Services

In principle, the Finnish postal service is open to competition but in fact there is currently only one post office provider, the state-owned Post Finland, which offers all postal services for direct marketing and mail dispatch. Its service includes both unaddressed as well as addressed bulk mail.

For unaddressed bulk mail a minimum of 500 mailings having a standard format, weight and content is required. For addressed bulk mail, the minimum is 1,000 mailings. Delivery then takes place on a specific day or within a calendar week.

Reply services include:

Domestic reply paid service:
The post-paid notice is printed on as is the case with the German dvertising replyservice. This service only applies within Finland.

Nordic reply paid service:
This service applies in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

International business reply service:
In addition to the Nordic countries, the Finnish Post Office has concluded an agreement with the countries belonging to the Universal Postal Union concerning BRS Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, United Arabian Emirates, UK, USA, Latvia, Croatia and Estonia.

Source: Fedma