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Goods - Sweden

Updated 11/2010

Legal requirements

Product safety

According to the Swedish Product Safety Act, goods and services provided by entrepreneurs must be safe. The Swedish Consumer Agency is responsible for checking the safety of toys, personal safety equipment and goods and services not covered by special product directives within the EU.

Foodstuffs

Nowadays, almost all rules on foodstuffs are drawn up within the EU and they apply across the whole of the EU. The Swedish Food Act supplements the EU Regulations. It contains rules on monitoring, duties, penalties and appeals.

  • Food Act svenska

Administrative procedures

Permits and licences

When you want to start a business, it is important to find out whether it needs a licence, registration or other notification to the authorities. Look in the 'Find permits' database on the business portal verksamt.se.

  • Find permits svenska
  • Licensing manual svenska

VAT registration

Anyone registering for VAT reporting is allocated a VAT registration number by the Swedish National Tax Board (Skatteverket). You can apply for a VAT registration number via the online services on verksamt.se, run jointly by the Swedish Companies Registration Office and the National Tax Board. If you sell goods within the EU, you can check your customer's VAT registration number on the European Commission website.

  • verksamt.se svenska

Invoice requirements

According to the Swedish Bookkeeping Act (Bokföringslagen), an invoice (supporting document) must contain, among other things:

  • the date (when it was drawn up)
  • the customer (to whom the invoice is addressed)
  • the transaction (when it occurred)
  • the specification (what the invoice covers)
  • the amount
  • More on invoice requirements svenska

Trade in goods

You do not need to pay customs duty when you trade in goods within the EU, so you do not need to submit an export declaration. But there are some goods that are covered by special provisions aimed at safeguarding the environment, health and safety. Examples are weapons, medicines and animals.

Statistics

In some cases, you may need to submit Intrastat reports on your business to Statistics Sweden (SCB).

  • Intrastat svenska

Resources

The Swedish National Board of Trade provides information on requirements regarding technical regulations at its Product Contact Point. The Contact Point will tell you whether there are technical regulations in Sweden for a given product type, and if so, what they are.

Trade barriers and other obstacles to the free movement of goods within the EU/EEA can be reported by contacting SOLVIT.

In the Swedish Customs and Excise Kvota search system, you can search for information on customs quotas. By entering the quota number, country of origin or year, you can obtain up-to-date information on quotas.

  • Customs quotas svenska

Check also the legislation on this topic in:

  • References

    Legal texts

    • Product Safety Act (Produktsäkerhetslag (2004:451)) svenska
    • Act concerning a European environmental labelling system (Lag (1994:609) om ett europeiskt miljömärkningssystem) svenska
    • Construction Products Act (Byggproduktlag (1992:1535)) svenska
    • Food Act (Livsmedelslag (2006:804)) svenska
    • Bookkeeping Act (Bokföringslag (1999:1078)) svenska

    Key documents

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Further help

The Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) is a non-profit organisation which represents its members and provides advice regarding standardisation issues.

SOLVIT helps businesses deal with problems that arise when national authorities wrongly apply EU market rules.