"Almost exactly a year ago, we were promised more information. Since then, we have been waiting, but the questions still remain unanswered, said the association's general counsel Sverre Linton at Ericsson's annual general meeting in Kista in northern Stockholm.

Support from ten percent of shareholders is required for denied discharge. The majority of the board, including CEO Börje Ekholm, reached that level and were denied.

Also at last year's Annual General Meeting, Ericsson's owners denied discharge from liability for the telecom giant, which is extremely unusual in larger listed companies.

The driving force in the process was the American ISS – Institutional Shareholder Services – which recommends institutional clients how to vote on various issues. Prior to this year's AGM, ISS had again urged its customers to vote against discharge from liability for most of Ericsson's Board of Directors and CEO Börje Ekholm at the Annual General Meeting. Avanza's equity fund had also said in advance that it intends to vote no.

"Different company today"

The background to the dissatisfaction is that Ericsson's board of directors and CEO are considered to have been too secretive when it comes to the information about bribery in Iraq.

In his speech at the Annual General Meeting, CEO Börje Ekholm addressed corruption and began with the words "dragons lift in headwinds". He stressed the internal work that is now being done to improve "ethics and compliance".

"We have strengthened our processes and routines in the company. The important work is to change the culture. Then you talk about how you look at behaviors and how you look at risk," he said.

"We are a different company today than we were in 2017, but we have more to do.

According to Ekholm, it is ultimately about Ericsson's business.

"We just have to succeed in this. How we do business is critical to us being a true industry leader.

Billions in fines

Already in 2019, Ericsson stated in an internal report that it was guilty of extensive corruption in Iraq. But the company only communicated the content of the report in February last year after SVT's Uppdrag granskning made pressure.

The tangle, together with previous bribery, has cost Ericsson around SEK 12 billion in fines. Just over a month ago, it became clear that the company will pay a fine of the equivalent of SEK 2.2 billion in a settlement after breaking an agreement with the US Department of Justice.