The FCCA recommends a penalty of around EUR 4.4 million on Attendo Suomi Oy for obstructing an inspection conducted under the Competition Act by deleting data from an employee's work phone.

Unannounced inspections were carried out by the FCCA at Attendo and other care services providers to investigate potential anticompetitive behavior in the elderly care services market, with a focus on cooperation prohibited by the Competition Act.

Under the Competition Act, the FCCA has the authority to conduct surprise inspections on companies suspected of competition infringements, allowing access to all business-related documents and communications.

During the inspection, an Attendo employee deleted work-related WhatsApp conversations and a call log from their phone, emphasizing the seriousness of the obstruction as the FCCA's focus was on electronic communications, easily tampered with.

Attendo cooperated with the FCCA to recover the deleted data after the obstruction was discovered, which influenced the proposed penalty amount. This marks the first penalty proposal by the FCCA for a procedural breach since June 2021, with the penalty not exceeding 1% of the company's turnover.