The current Swedish right of priority legislation, which is set forth in the Right of Priority Act (SFS 1970:979) was amended on 1 January 2004. The new legislation has been preceded by considerable disunion in the Swedish Parliament with several controversial questions being raised. So what are the reasons for changing the legislation?

In February this year, the Swedish Market Court delivered a historic judgement, declaring the Swedish general ban on commercial advertising of alcoholic beverages in periodicals incompatible with EU law. Since it is probably the first time in Swedish legal history that a legislative act has been ruled out by a supreme court, the judgement was followed by extensive coverage in Swedish and international press.

In September 2003 the government presented a bill proposing a new legislation (the "Invest-ment Funds Act") regarding mutual funds and other undertakings for collective investments.