Is CBD legal in Finland?

Formal status

Across the EU, cannabidiol and other cannabinoid extracts are classified as unauthorised novel foods under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, and no Union list authorisation exists in any member state.

Finland applies that baseline without qualification. The Finnish Food Authority states that CBD and CBD extracts may not be placed on the market in any form as a food or a food supplement. Only seed-derived hemp products are permitted as foods.

Separately, and more significantly, Finland treats CBD as a medicinal question. Cannabidiol is named in Annex 1 of Fimea's decision on the medicines list, 230/2025, in force since 19 May 2025. Fimea's published position is that a preparation containing cannabidiol is equivalent to a prescription medicine in Finland, and that importing such a preparation without a prescription is prohibited. There is no dose threshold anywhere in this framework. Each product is assessed individually, and Fimea's own decision text records that the list is not exhaustive and that not every product containing a listed substance meets the definition of a medicine. Classification therefore turns on product form, presentation and properties rather than on cannabidiol content.

Cannabidiol is not a narcotic in Finland. It appears in none of the annexes to the government decree on substances regarded as narcotics.

One further point sits outside the timeline because it could not be dated to the judgment itself. In 2021 the Supreme Administrative Court quashed a Customs seizure of a private individual's CBD hemp oil parcel sent from another member state, holding that Customs could not treat a product as a medicine merely because it contains a substance named on the medicines list; an appealable product-specific classification decision is required. The year is certain; the day could not be traced to a source about the decision rather than about the reporting of it.

Do we sell here?

Yes, for now: Sleep spray, Sleep capsules.

Yes, we ship to Finland.

We will not pretend the position is simple. Finland treats CBD strictly: the food authority does not permit it as a food supplement pending EU novel food authorisation, which no country has granted, and the medicines regulator treats CBD preparations as equivalent to prescription medicines, assessed product by product. We are in the same position in Finland that every CBD seller in Europe is in, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.

What we weighed is that Finnish enforcement has been directed at businesses established in Finland, and that in 2021 Finland's highest administrative court set aside a customs seizure of a private buyer's CBD order from another EU country, holding that a product-specific classification decision was needed first. Comparable EU sellers deliver to Finland unimpeded.

We review this weekly and will say so plainly here if it changes.

Outlook

Two things are worth watching in Finland over the next year.

The first is a pending case before the Supreme Court on whether low-THC cannabis flower is a narcotic under the criminal code. It has been reported as pending but we have not been able to confirm it from the court's own records, and it is not in the timeline for that reason. A ruling either way would be the most consequential Finnish development for this category since 2023.

The second is whether the medicines regulator begins issuing product-specific classification decisions at volume. Only one such decision on a CBD product has ever been published, and the Supreme Administrative Court has held that Customs needs one before it can act on a consignment. If that changes, the practical position changes with it, even though the formal position would not have moved at all.

Timeline

June 2019

Fimea publishes its position that a cannabidiol-containing preparation is equivalent to a prescription medicine in Finland, that every preparation is assessed individually by a separate classification decision, and that importing a CBD preparation classifiable as a medicine without a prescription is prohibited. The same notice records that Fimea works with Customs on import supervision.

Fimea

January 2020

Fimea classifies a 25 ml CBD oral spray as a medicinal product on the basis of its product form and properties. The decision is final, and remains the only published Finnish classification decision on a CBD product.

Fimea, luokittelupäätökset 2018-2025

May 2025

Fimea's decision on the medicines list, 230/2025, enters into force and repeals the 2022 list. Cannabidiol and melatonin are both named in Annex 1; cannabinol is not. The decision states in its own terms that the list is not exhaustive and that not every product containing a listed substance meets the definition of a medicine.

Suomen säädöskokoelma 230/2025