The Legal 500

Hamilton Advokatbyrå has reported on Public Procurement in Sweden in the publication "Public Procurement 2008 - an overview of regulation in 40 jurisdictions worldwide." The report includes analysis of the new Swedish Public Procurement legislation which entered into force on January 1st 2008.

The article contains an overview of the Swedish regulations on banking- and financing business. The survey covers, inter alia, licence requirements for banking and financing business, how the supervision is conducted, capital requirements, rules for owner- and management assessment and measures taken by the Swedish government to restore confidence in the Swedish financial market.

FRIENDLIER NORWEGIAN HEGDE FUNDS REGULATIONS IN FORCE July 2010 sees friendlier Norwegian hedge funds regulations entering into force – at last. New regulations lift the previous general marketing ban, implying that marketing licences shall now be obtainable.

NEW NORWEGIAN RESTRICTIONS ON NAKED SHORT SELLING As alerted in our March 2010 newsletter, the Norwegian Parliament has passed a general ban on naked short selling of securities listed on Norwegian regulated markets by way of amendments to the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. The former prohibition applicable to investment firms has been expanded and applies to all investors and intermediaries as per 1 July 2010.

The article analyzes and criticizes a recent decision from the Swedish Chancellor of Justice, which denies state liability for losses caused by a misleading information campaign launched by the National Food Authority and the Medical Products Agency against certain food supplements.

Background All limited companies, foreign branches, economic associations, foundations and some general partnerships – regardless of size and revenue – are required to have an auditor, as are larger not-for-profit organizations and sole proprietorships. The Swedish requirement is in contrast to nearly all other member states of the European Union, which have exempted small companies from an audit requirement.

The technical development and growing popularity of blogs, social networks and various other types of websites with user generated content has provided companies with exciting new possibilities for spreading information and brand building through the Internet. At the same time, however, it is important for companies to carefully plan their presence in social media from a legal perspective.

The European Commission’s new rules on distribution of goods and services came into effect on 1 June. They replace the block exemption regulation 2790/1999, which has been in effect for just over ten years. Elisabeth Legnerfält and Helene Andersson highlight the most important changes in the new block exemption regulation 330/2010.

In the middle of April, the government submitted a bill to parliament proposing that small private, limited companies will be able to elect whether or not to appoint an auditor. Supposedly, the purpose of the amendments is to allow limited liability companies to decide, to the extent possible, upon the services they need for their organization and management.

The environmental courts were established in 1999 in conjunction with the Environmental Code taking effect. The court assumed the role which the Concessions Board for environmental protection and the water courts had had as licensing authorities. The property courts history is considerably older than the environmental courts, since they were founded in 1969.

A new act on commission agents has been in force since 1 October 2009. It replaced the commission agent act from 1914. A commission agent buys or sells in his/her own name but on behalf of another person. This means that the other contracting party is under the belief that s/he is entering into an agreement with a seller, e.g. a car dealer, but the financial interest lies with a third party, such as an importer who owns the car. The car dealer receives commission on the transaction, in about the same way an agent would. The person selling something for someone else (car dealer) is called a commission agent and the car importer is called the principal. However, the most common form of commission agent transaction takes place in securities on stock exchanges etc.