Google’s biggest European investment is under scrutiny in Finland, where authorities have halted site work and police have now opened a criminal investigation into suspected environmental law breaches at a planned data centre site in the north of the country.

The case centres on Google’s sites at Muhos and Kajaani, part of a €13 billion ($14.6 billion) Finnish investment announced in September. Finland’s Licensing and Supervision Agency (LVV) ordered work stopped on October 6, saying it was investigating whether tree felling, topsoil stripping and road building went ahead without a mandatory environmental impact assessment. The deadline for Google’s Finnish unit, Tuike Finland, to halt preparatory work was October 23.

The scale of the clearing is disputed in detail but not in outline. The Guardian, as reported by The Next Web, estimated about 250,000 trees were cleared across 330 hectares at Muhos, with an ecologist for the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation estimating another 150,000 felled near Kajaani. Other reports put the area at about 300 hectares. A private individual asked police for a preliminary inquiry on October 2.

Google denies illegal logging, saying its work complied with Finland’s Forestry Act on its land. It has also said it will “fully comply” with LVV’s requests and that it stopped preparatory work after receiving the agency’s letters. Its country manager, Antti Järvinen, apologised in an interview with Finnish broadcaster Yle on October 13, saying the company acted on its best understanding of the law at the time. Google plans to plant trees across 130 hectares at Muhos, which conservationists say is too little.

The reaction has been political. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo called the Muhos events a “cold shower”, the environment ministry says it is ready to propose law changes if needed, and a petition for tighter data centre rules had gathered more than 96,000 signatures. Finland has 145 data centres at various stages of planning, according to the Guardian.

The reports seen by GyanMuse do not specify which offences police are examining. For countries courting data centre investment, including India, the case shows how permitting and forest rules can slow a project that has already begun.