Environmental Liabilities & Remediation Actions

Environmental Liabilities & Remediation Actions

In real estate sales and purchases, it is important to allocate liability for soil and groundwater contamination.

Brownfield remediation is a key aspect of the redevelopment of old industrial sites. Let us help you find the best solutions to the environmental liability and remediation issues you may encounter in your business.

While the main rule is that the liability for restoring environmental contamination rests with the party that caused the contamination, it may be contractually hard to allocate the liability to that party or the responsible party may not be known. The contamination could also have be caused by activities that used to be legal or the responsible party could be insolvent. Our team has a broad experience of remediating and/or redeveloping brownfield properties and can provide you with effective counsel on the risks and challenges associated with the redevelopment and with the sale or purchase of such sites.

Our clients include municipalities, listed and other large companies, ministries, state-owned companies, government agencies, lenders and international law firms.

  • Negotiation of sale and purchase agreements
  • Applications for remediation permits and administrative compulsion processes
  • Legal environmental due diligence reviews
  • Liability-related disputes and settlement negotiations
  • Legal investigations of contamination, i.e. determining who is the polluter.

Latest references

We represented Voima Ventures in the Series A funding round of Aisti Corporation. Aisti’s EUR 29 million funding round will support the construction of its first commercial factory in Kitee, Finland, enabling the company to scale production. Other investors include Maki.vc and Valve Ventures Consortium among others. Voima Ventures is a venture capital fund investing in top scientific deep tech ventures in the Nordics and Baltics. Aisti Corporation is an acoustic tiles manufacturer with sustainability and functionality at heart. Aisti’s acoustic tiles are made from highly renewable wood fibres. With the factory in Kitee, the company plans to achieve a production capacity of 2.5 million square meters annually.
Case published 13.12.2024
We are acting as Finnish advisor to Hanza AB relating to its acquisition of all the shares in Leden Group Oy. Hanza AB is a Swedish mechanical engineering and electronics contract manufacturing company listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Founded in 2008, the company has six manufacturing clusters in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Baltics, Central Europe and China and an annual turnover of approximately SEK 4.6 billion. Leden Group is a leading Finnish contract manufacturer specialising in sheet metal, machining and complex assembly. Leden Group has four production sites in Finland and one in Estonia and an annual turnover of approximately SEK 1.1 billion.  The closing of the transaction remains subject to authority approval and customary conditions.
Case published 13.12.2024
We assisted Smarter Contracts Ltd in the process where the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom confirmed it to be an EU-recognised data intermediation service. Non-EU companies must have a legal representative in some EU country so that they can offer data intermediation services in accordance with the Data Governance Act. Smarter Contracts is based in Great Britain and selected Finland for the task. Smarter Contracts is the first non-EU data intermediation service registered by Traficom. Wayne Lloyd, Founder & CEO of Smarter Contracts, remarked:  The support from the Castrén team was exceptional from start to finish. Pioneering new territory is never without its challenges, and as the first non-EU data intermediation service provider, we faced significant legal uncertainties. Despite these complexities, the Castrén team expertly guided us through each step with remarkable efficiency, providing the certainty we needed. Smarter Contracts leverages its proprietary Pulse Permissions Protocol® to deliver advanced consent and access rights management services. This milestone highlights Castrén & Snellman’s proficiency in navigating intricate regulatory landscapes, whilst recognising the relevance of Smarter Contracts’ innovative approach to secure, compliant data management.
Case published 11.12.2024
We assisted Pharmaca Health Intelligence in its acquisition of Mediaattori Ltd’s PODIUM Connect® and PODIUM Visits businesses. Through the acquisition, Pharmaca Health Intelligence strengthens its extensive service offerings in medical information, data-driven management, and education for both healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaca Health Intelligence is a pioneer in digital medical information and a reliable partner for wellbeing services counties, the private healthcare sector and pharmacies. The company invests in the development of technology and service solutions related to pharmaceutical information, also on an international scale.
Case published 5.12.2024