Businesses

Instructions for operation, maintenance and care must be provided for goods whose use requires instructions.

The retailer is always responsible for the products they sell and for ensuring that operating instructions are provided. The consumer may not be told to contact the importer to receive operating instructions - it is the retailer's responsibility to take care of their provision.

Instructions must be supplied in Finnish and Swedish. Operating instructions in Finnish/Swedish must be free of charge.

Operating instructions must be provided in such a form that the consumer can easily access and read them. If the buyer does not have the ability to access, for example, operating instructions supplied on a CD, the instructions must be provided to him in printed form.

If a product does not include operating instructions and they are not provided within a reasonable time after purchase despite requests for them, the consumer may even demand cancellation of the purchase.

It is also against the law to sell a product at a lower price or at a discounted price if no operating instructions in Finnish/Swedish are provided. Operating or assembling products without sufficient instructions may even be hazardous to health or property. Therefore the Product Safety Act also requires that sufficient operating instructions are supplied with products.

Several legal provisions cover operating instructions:

• The provisions on product defects in the Consumer Protection Act state that a product is considered defective if the necessary instructions for use, assembly etc. are not provided.
• According to the Language Act, product information and operating instructions must be supplied in Finnish and Swedish.
• The Government decree on information to be supplied in respect of consumer products and services, which is based on the Product Safety Act, provides that information deemed necessary for the consumer's health and economic security must be supplied in Finnish and Swedish (Section 9). That provision of the Decree refers to the Language Act.
• Furthermore, the Consumer Protection Act provisions on marketing state that marketing that does not convey information necessary in respect of the health or economic security of consumers shall always be deemed unfair.