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‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2026
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Well, they can create a law to properly fine such things in the future. If current law doesn't allow imposing a proper fine, it's not possible to amend in a way that allows fining after that.
At least in Finland you can only get punished according to the law that was in place when you did the act. Not any laws that were passed later. AFAIK the same is true in the US as well.
False, it's just not customary.
I don't know how it goes in the US, but in Finland the concept of lex praevia is set in the Finnish constitution.
While the Finnish constitution is not set in stone, and can indeed be amended via a supermajority, there's practically no government that would actually allow that kind of change to legislation. It's obvious to anyone what breaking said principle would mean and strive for, and doing so would require at least four different parties to agree.
IDK why you think USA is relevant? USA is a shithole country that is in no way representative of how democracies work.
Doesn't mean a fine can't be increased, and a permission to use the land can be withdrawn.
So it was already illegal, and increasing the punishment because of especially egregious circumstances would be within what is legally possible.
Also a government can administratively fine a company, Italy does that all the time. In EU the fines against companies like Google were determined by a political council like this for example:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_17_1806
This fine of €2.42 billion was issued purely by politicians on an administrative basis for breaking EU regulation. Since Finland is a member of EU, this is also legal in Finland.