SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Georgios Eleftheriadis, Hellström Law Firm
1. Policy Development of Collective Redress/Class Action Mechanisms 1.1 History and Policy Drivers of the Legislative Regime Swedish class actions are regulated primarily under the Group Proceedings Act (2002:559). Prior to the entry into force of said statute (on 1 January 2003), class actions could not be pursued under Swedish procedural law. The statute was preceded by nearly a decade of leg- islative review, which started in 1991 and was con- cluded by 1994 through the so-called SOU 1994:151. This thorough evaluation included assessments on the availability of class actions to environmental protec- tion organisations, consumer protection organisa- tions, individual consumers, and representatives of Swedish public authorities. Actual legislation was delayed, however, and class action regulation only entered into force (in a majorly reworked way compared to the original vision) in the early 2000s. By this point, the ambition was for Swed- ish class action proceedings to resemble regular civil litigation proceedings to the greatest extent possible. Unfortunately, class actions have not received much legislative attention in Sweden. The only major legis- lative reform since the entry into force of the Group Proceedings Act has been the implementation of the EU Collective Redress Regime in 2023. 1.2 Basis for the Legislative Regime, Including Analogous International Laws By and large, Swedish class action legislation cannot be said to have been modelled on the regime of any other jurisdiction. The aim of the Swedish legislator was, rather, that it should resemble regular Swedish civil litigation proceedings to the greatest extent pos- sible. 1.3 Implementation of the EU Collective Redress Regime Sweden implemented the EU Directive 2020/1828 in 2023 through the Act on class actions for the protec- tion of consumer interests (2023:730). The implemen- tation was, in other words, carried out through the
enactment of a purpose-made statute on the subject matter.
2. Legal Framework 2.1 Collective Redress and Class Action Legislation The primary statute regulating class actions in Swe- den is the Group Proceedings Act, which contains the bulk of the applicable rules on class actions. Complementary regulations exist in the form of: • the Code of Judicial Procedure (1942:740), which the Group Proceedings Act complements, as most procedural rules for class actions are identical to regular civil litigation proceedings; • the Act on class actions for the protection of con- sumer interests ‒ through which the EU Directive 2020/1828 is implemented in Swedish law; • the Environmental Code (1998:808), which pro- vides complementary rules on class actions regarding environmental cases; • the Competition Damages Act (2016:964), which provides complementary rules on class actions regarding violations of competition law. The Group Proceedings Act could be considered an add-on to the Code of Judicial Procedure, com- plementing the latter with procedural rules specific to class actions. This includes matters of standing, competent courts, class member status, representa- tion, and specific settlement mechanisms. 2.2 Scope of Areas of Law to Which the Legislation Applies There are no specific limitations under Swedish law regarding the scope of areas of law (substantively) to which class action legislation applies. Class actions may be brought concerning the same areas of law as for any regular civil litigation procedure. Examples of the areas of law in which class actions may be brought include: • environmental law; • consumer protection law;
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