Defending Consumer Choice and Collaboration in Finland’s Beer Culture

Finland is currently considering new excise-tax guidance that would effectively make many collaboration beers impossible for small breweries. Under the draft interpretation, if a beer shows more than one brewery’s name or logo (as collaborations typically do), it could be treated as “licensed production” and the breweries could lose their small-brewery tax relief for the entire year. This would impact not only Finnish breweries, but also imports and international collaborations—ultimately reducing choice for beer consumers.

 

Collaboration beers are one of the joys of modern beer culture. When two or more independent breweries create a beer together, they share ideas, expertise and passion, often across borders. These joint brews rarely make anyone rich; they are usually small batches that give beer lovers something new and exciting to try and help breweries reach new audiences. European law recognises that small breweries sometimes cooperate, and it allows EU countries to give small breweries tax relief if they remain independent. In many countries this has encouraged collaboration and innovation without undermining tax rules.

 

Finland’s draft excise tax guidance goes in the opposite direction. It would treat any beer bearing more than one brewery’s logo as “licensed production,” stripping all participating breweries of the small brewery tax relief for an entire year. Even when no money changes hands and the beer is brewed in one brewery’s own premises, the mere presence of a partner’s logo would be enough to trigger the penalty. That would effectively ban collaboration beers for Finland’s small breweries, discourage international collaborations and make Finland an outlier in Europe.

 

As the European Beer Consumers’ Union, we believe consumers deserve choice, diversity and fairness. Collaboration beers enrich the beer landscape, strengthen friendships across borders and introduce consumers to new styles and tastes. Preventing small breweries from brewing such beers would reduce variety and innovation for beer drinkers in Finland and beyond. It could also harm Finnish breweries’ export opportunities and lead foreign breweries to avoid the Finnish market for fear of losing their small brewery status. Ultimately, consumers would face fewer options on shop shelves.

 

We urge the Finnish authorities to reconsider their draft guidance. Any rules on small brewery tax relief should distinguish clearly between genuine contract brewing (where one company produces another’s brand) and the creative collaborations that give consumers new experiences. We also call on EU policymakers to ensure that the spirit of cooperation in Directive 92/83/EEC is applied consistently across Member States. Beer consumers in Finland and all of Europe deserve policies that support diversity, innovation and fair treatment.