SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Helena Selander, Pontus Scherp and Fredrik Norburg, Norburg & Scherp
occur. In an antitrust damages action, this may there - fore provide a basis for Swedish jurisdiction where the relevant harm occurred in Sweden, even though the defendant is domiciled in another member state. Where proceedings are brought against several defendants, Article 8 (1) may allow the claims to be heard together before the courts of the member state in which one of the defendants is domiciled. This requires the claims to be so closely connected that it is expedient to hear and determine them together to avoid the risk of irreconcilable judgments resulting from separate proceedings. Where the applicable European or international juris - dictional rules do not apply, Swedish courts determine jurisdiction by reference to principles developed in Swedish case law, including through analogous appli - cation of the jurisdictional provisions of the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure. The assessment generally concerns whether the dispute has a sufficient con - nection to Sweden. Relevant connecting factors may include whether the defendant has assets in Sweden and whether the relevant harm occurred or was suf - The law applicable to antitrust damages claims based on non-contractual obligations is generally determined under Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 (the “Rome II Regulation”). Article 6 (3)(a) provides that the law applicable to a non-contractual obligation arising from a restriction of competition is, as a general rule, the law of the country whose market is, or is likely to be, affected by the restriction. Where the restriction affects, or is likely to affect, markets in more than one jurisdiction, the claimant may choose to apply the law of the country of the proceedings on the entire claim, if at least one of the defendants are seated there. See Article 6 (3)(b) of the Rome II Regulation. fered in Sweden. Applicable Law
evidentiary relevance to the proceedings. The request must identify the document or category of documents sought and specify the information that the docu - ments are expected to contain. However, there are a few exceptions to disclosure. The following information cannot be subject to dis - closure: • communications between a party and its counsel; • trade secrets, unless there are special reasons for disclosure; • documents held by a competition authority con - cerning declarations in a leniency process and settlement submissions; and • documents produced for the competition author - ity’s investigation, while the investigation is still ongoing. It should be noted, in terms of documents including trade secrets, that disclosure of such information is assessed on a case-by-case basis. The court will take into consideration the need for protection as well as the evidentiary value of such information for the other party. The court may order that documents are dis - closed with restrictions, such as limiting the number of recipients and the use of the documents (confiden - tiality rings). A court may order a competition authority to produce documents from its file where the relevant evidence cannot reasonably be obtained from another party or third party. Disclosure may be sought before proceedings have been initiated, although the requirements are more restrictive. In particular, there must be a risk that the evidence would otherwise be lost or become difficult to obtain. Separately from the rules on disclosure in civil pro - ceedings, documents held by the Swedish Competi - tion Authority may be accessible under the Swedish constitutional principle of public access to official documents. Access is, however, subject to applicable rules on secrecy and confidentiality, including restric - tions concerning commercially sensitive information
6. Disclosure/Discovery 6.1 Disclosure/Discovery Procedure
A party to an antitrust damages action may request that the court order another party, or a third party, to produce documents that can be assumed to have
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