The Legal 500

In February 2010 the Sentencing Guidelines Council (the SGC) issued definitive guidelines to courts on imposing appropriate sentences for corporate manslaughter and health and safety offences causing death. The SGC states that fines imposed on companies found guilty of corporate manslaughter should not fall below £500,000, while fines in respect of health and safety offences that are a significant cause of death should be at least £100,000. Crucially, the SGC declined to provide for a fixed link between the imposed fine and the turnover or profitability of the offending company.


Discrimination - Equal Treatment Act A fixed-term contract was held in the circumstances to be an open-ended contract. The employer’s ‎decision not to renew was therefore held to constitute termination of employment which, due to the ‎employee’s pregnancy, was in conflict with the Danish Act on Equal Treatment of Men and Women.‎

This past year has offered some interesting cases in Sweden regarding abuse of a dominant position. In the TeliaSonera-case (cf ECJ case C-52/9) the Stockholm District Court imposed the highest fines ever ordered in Sweden, SEK 144 million (approximately EUR 15 million), for abuse of a dominant position through a margin-squeeze.

In October 2011 a remit proposing a much longed-for new national act on state aid was presented. Currently Sweden has no national legislation concerning the application of the European Union’s state aid rules.

The Swedish government has proposed new legislation which will entail further restrictions regarding tax deductions for interest expenses on inter-company loans. Kindly note that the proposed legislation will broaden the definition of the term ”affiliated companies”.

On 20 October 2011, the European Commission published two proposals intended to update and strengthen the existing framework insuring investor protection under the Market Abuse Directive (2003/6/EC) (Market Abuse Directive).

During 2011 there have been several interesting developments as regards dawn raids and legal privilege.

Despite several attempts by the Swedish Competition Authority, Swedish courts have not yet prohibited any mergers, although a number of concentrations have been subject to commitments.

The Presidency of the Council of the European Union recently published the final compromise text of the proposed European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), which the European Parliament adopted on 29 March 2012.

In one of the first Google AdWords cases to be decided in Sweden, the court finds no probable cause for trade mark infringement where a company has bought its competitor’s trade mark as a search term on Google. Counsel for the plaintiff, Gärde Wesslau’s Petter Holm, comments on the decision.

 the Universities of Stockholm and Gothenburg