The European Commission said Tuesday it will take Finland to court again for failing to ban chewing tobacco in the Swedish-speaking Aland Islands.

The EU executive said it would ask the EU's highest court to charge Finland a fine of over € 2 million (USD 2.8 million) and impose daily fines of € 19,828 per day if it continues to disobey the ban on oral tobacco.
In 2004, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice upheld a ban on the substance, ruling that the dangers of snus merited its being outlawed. Only Sweden has an exemption to an EU ban on the smokeless tobacco called snus that is usually stuck under the upper lip.
The Aland Islands changed local laws last January to try to bow to EU wishes  – but Brussels said they did not go far enough because they only stopped the snus variety and not other types of oral tobacco, such as chewing tobacco, from entering the market.
Its rules also allow oral tobacco to be sold on boats once they leave Finnish waters, meaning that Baltic Sea ferries can skirt the ban during part of their voyage.
Chewing tobacco is banned in the rest of Finland. But, situated in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, the Aland archipelago has its own government and a 30-member Parliament. (pi)