Supreme Administrative Court upholds €300,000 penalty against Maskun Kalustetalo in Finland

The Supreme Administrative Court of Finland has upheld a €300,000 penalty imposed on Maskun Kalustetalo for misleading advertising practices. The court rejected appeals from both Maskun Kalustetalo and the Consumer Ombudsman regarding the penalty.

In 2023, the Market Court ruled that Maskun Kalustetalo was to pay the government the fine for deceptive marketing. This penalty was significantly lower than the €1 million demanded by the Consumer Ombudsman. Both the furniture retailer and the Ombudsman appealed the decision to the Supreme Administrative Court.

The penalty pertains to the promotion of ten randomly selected sofas on Maskun’s website between July 2020 and October 2021. According to the investigation by the Consumer Ombudsman, the advertised sale prices were based on figures that the company had never actually charged. The Market Court also found that the discount prices were overstated, indicating that the sofas were sold at discounts substantially larger than their regular prices.

The Supreme Administrative Court concluded that there are no grounds to alter the penalty imposed by the Market Court on Maskun Kalustetalo.