Since last year, the legal text that regulates who is entitled to short-term support has changed.
Among other things, it has been written that a company that decides on or carries out a value transfer is not entitled to short-term support.
It was not included in the legal text itself when Alain and Claudine Cavards decided to make a share dividend.
Clarified on share dividends
But according to Niklas Kjellberg at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth's press service, it was clear from the preparatory work for the law that this was how it was intended to work.
He believes that it has always been the legislator's intention that companies that make dividends, or decide on it, lose the right to support.
- In the current law, which came into force on 15 February this year, the government has chosen to clarify what will apply to share dividends.
As we received signals that this would be sharpened, we chose to harmonize our assessments of cases also from 2020 with it, says Niklas Kjellberg to SVT Nyheter Småland.
Canceled share dividends are also counted
Why Alain Cavards has to pay back money despite the fact that after only a few weeks he regretted and canceled his share dividend, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth does not want to answer.
The authority says they do not comment on individual cases.
But in an email response to SVT, the authority believes that a decision on share payment is considered a sufficiently clear sign that the finances of a company are so good that the right to support does not exist.
According to Alain Cavards, it was difficult for him to judge that the pandemic would last as long as it did.
When he decided on a share dividend in April 2020, he and many others thought that the tourists would be back later that summer.
But the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth does not want to comment on that either.
You can read the entire email response from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth below.