Tokmanni collected €500,000 from shoplifters in 2025

Finnish retail chain Tokmanni collected nearly €500,000 last year by charging shoplifters an €80 processing fee for each theft, Yle reports.

According to Tokmanni’s security chief Jukka Oinonen, the company recorded 6,200 shoplifting cases in 2025, each incurring the fee. While some resisted paying, all eventually settled the charge.

Legal experts have questioned the practice, with emeritus professor Matti Tolvanen calling it “highly dubious” and akin to private fining. The actual sum collected may be higher, as the fee has been applied to each minor involved in group thefts.

Shoplifting has risen since the pandemic, costing Finnish retailers an estimated €500 million annually in losses and prevention, per a 2023 survey by the Finnish Commerce Federation. Rival chains K-ryhmä and S-ryhmä declined to disclose their own costs, with S-ryhmä stating only that losses were “significant.”

Tokmanni justifies the fee as covering costs such as security services. Both K-ryhmä and S-ryhmä pursue similar fees through courts, though neither provided data on how often such charges are imposed.