The Swedish Companies Agency is criticized by JO

When the government decided that most companies and associations in Sweden would notify the real principal, it was also decided that the registration would be done electronically, if there were no special reasons.

The Swedish Companies Registration Office, which is the authority responsible for registration, therefore has a service for this on its site. But JO then received several notifications of the new scheme from private individuals. They felt that they would be forced to procure a computer, Internet connection and e-identification in order to fulfill their statutory obligations. This is not reasonable, they said, and also complained that the Swedish Companies Registration Office has been stingy with the dispensations from electronic registration.

Chief Justice Ombudsman Elisabeth Rynning is critical of the Swedish Companies Administration's handling of the issue on several points. She now states in her decision that it is self-evident that the individuals involved must receive satisfactory information about the possibility of exemption. The Swedish Companies Registration Office is considered to have designed its information material in an inadequate manner.

In a decision not to grant an exemption, the Swedish Companies Registration Office has also responded that an exemption is only granted "if the representatives cannot obtain Swedish e-identification or cannot access the Internet". According to JO, the wording is misleading as what is stated are only two examples of what may constitute special reasons. The concerned attorneys also did not have sufficient knowledge of how the exemption provision was applied. "Of course it is not acceptable," says JO.

The fact that digitalisation of government contacts is not always so easy is understood when the Swedish Companies Registration Office now also receives criticism that the form for dispensing from electronic registration was not available on the authority's website.