Dawn Raids In Sweden During 2011

During 2011 there have been several interesting developments as regards dawn raids and legal privilege. The Swedish Competition Authority carried out six dawn raids and assisted in ten other investigations. Swedish legislation requires that the Competition Authority applies to the Stockholm District Court for permission to conduct a dawn raid, a decision which can be appealed. The Stockholm District Court dismissed two applications for dawn raids, something which has previously been extremely rare, but both applications were approved on appeal to the Market Court. For the first time as far as we are aware a dawn raid was carried out by the Swedish Competition Authority in a private home. There is currently a debate amongst Swedish competition lawyers concerning the legality of mirroring hard disks during dawn raids. In addition, an interesting judgment was made by the Stockholm District Court which expanded the Swedish scope of legal privilege.