Effectiveness and Enforcement of Consumer Law in Sweden

Sweden is widely regarded as a country with high profile in consumer protection policy and well functioning consumer law and institutions. The foundations of the legal and institutional framework of consumer policy were laid down already at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. This framework, with specialised consumer law statutes and prominent public institutions entrusted with the implementation and enforcement of consumer law and policy, has generally stood the test of time. Most of the original institutions, like the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket, KOV) with the Consumer Ombudsman (Konsumentombudsmannen, KO) and the Public Board for Consumer Complaints (Allmanna reklamationsnamnden, ARN), are still in place. There is furthermore remarkable continuity in the overall structure and general principles of consumer legislation. Certainly, in the course of the almost six decades of active consumer policy, some important changes in the approach to enforcement and more generally, to the governance of consumer policy have taken place in response to various political and societal developments. A particularly significant factor for change has been Sweden’s accession to the European Union (EU) in 1995 and the ensuing process of Europeanisation.