Influence of the Alcohol Industry on the Overall Reform of the Law on Alcohol in Finland

This is a qualitative study whose objectives were first, to find why the initial alcohol laws were changed in Finland to the proposed ones which will instead lead to an increase in the sale and consumption of alcohol and second, what means were used by the alcohol industry to make the change possible. To explore these objectives, the following were the two research questions of the study: (1) why were the initial alcohol laws changed to the proposed ones which will instead lead to an increase in the sale and consumption of alcohol? and (2) what means were used by the alcohol industry to make the change possible? To answer these research questions, the data collected for this study was divided into primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through interviews with experts who had participated in the preparation of the Alcohol Act namely: politicians, civil servants, researchers and industry actors. The experts were selected on grounds that as members of the parliament or senior officials, they had first-hand knowledge of the influence of the alcohol industry on the overall reform of the law on alcohol in Finland. The data was analyzed through qualitatively content and thematic analyses since the two are often used interchangeably. The findings revealed that the original purpose of changing the law on alcohol in Finland was to modernize it because the existing law was too old and had been amended many times. On the other hand, the findings revealed that there were two strategies used by the alcohol industry to lobby for the change in the proposed law. They were active public information lobbying campaign, and personal lobbying contacts with members of parliament (MPs) and other politicians who had positive attitude towards the alcohol industry.