Hannes Snellman Counsel to Kesko Oyj and K-Citymarket Stores in Precedent Ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland

Hannes Snellman successfully represented Kesko Oyj and several K-Citymarket stores in multiple administrative court proceedings where Regional State Administrative Agencies had introduced restricting conditions to the alcohol retail trade licences of the K-Citymarket stores.

Kesko and the K-Citymarket stores appealed the decisions of the Regional State Administrative Agencies, and in its first four decisions, the Administrative Court of Northern Finland ruled in favour of the appellants by revoking the conditions of the alcohol retail trade licences to a large extent and ordering the authorities to compensate for part of the legal costs incurred by the appellants.

The decisions of the Administrative Court of Northern Finland were appealed by the Regional State Administrative Agencies and the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health. On 19 June 2024, the Supreme Administrative Court handed down a precedent ruling (KHO:2024:90), where the Court ruled in favour of the K-Citymarket stores. The Supreme Administrative Court confirmed that the Alcohol Act does not require that only the licence holder or their staff could hand over alcoholic beverages to the customers. Neither does the Alcohol Act require that the payment for an alcoholic beverage could only be received by the holder of the alcohol retail trade licence or an entity legally authorised to process payments. Therefore, the Regional State Administrative Agency could not impose the conditions in the retail trade licence based on the grounds it had asserted. The Supreme Administrative Court held that there was no reason to change the outcome of the decision of the Administrative Court of Northern Finland.

In the three other cases, the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the authorities’ applications for leave to appeal, wherefore the outcome of the decisions of the Administrative Court of Northern Finland was not changed in these cases either.

The Supreme Administrative Court ordered the Regional State Administrative Agencies and the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health to compensate EUR 15,000 of the legal costs incurred by the K-Citymarket stores in each decision.

Hannes Snellman’s team consisted of Counsel Vilhelm Schröder and Partner Anna-Maria Tamminen as lead counsel and Associates Annika Tiitola and Aleksiina Markkula.