Distributes a software product, in Sweden

Produktansvarslag (1992:18) · Read the law's page

• Standalone software is outside this Act; the Government's draft bill of August 2026 reads the Act as covering software only where it is integrated in a product and is a necessary condition for the product to work (Sec. 2).
• If you manufacture, produce or collect a product, import it into the European Economic Area to put it into circulation there, or market it as your own by adding your name, trade mark or another distinguishing mark, you answer for damage a safety deficiency in it causes (Sec. 6).
• Make the product as safe as can reasonably be expected, taking account of its foreseeable use, how you market it, its instructions for use, when you put it into circulation and other circumstances (Sec. 3).
• If the product does not show who made or imported it, name that person or your own supplier within one month after the injured person claims compensation, or you answer as if you were the producer (Sec. 7).
• Be ready to show that you did not put the product into circulation in a business, that the deficiency probably did not exist when you did, that it results from mandatory rules issued by an authority, or that scientific and technical knowledge then made it impossible to discover (Sec. 8).
• Do not rely on a contract term that limits liability under the Act: it has no effect (Sec. 5).

PTSFS 2024:5, Post- och telestyrelsens föreskrifter om vissa produkters tillgänglighet · Read the law's page

• As a manufacturer, assess conformity by internal production control and keep technical documentation with at least a general description of the product, the harmonized standards and technical specifications applied, the parts applied, and the solutions chosen where they were not applied; if you rely on section 7 of the Act, show in the documentation the fundamental alteration or disproportionate burden (PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 3 to 6).
• Update your procedures when the product's design or characteristics, or the standards or specifications you cite in the EU declaration, change, and keep the EU declaration of conformity up to date, in Swedish, naming the Union acts concerned with a publication reference (PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 7 to 9).
• Give the product a type, batch or serial number or other identifying mark, your contact details with a single address, and instructions and safety information in Swedish, on the product or, where its size or nature prevents it, on the packaging or in an accompanying document (PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 10 to 12).
• As an importer, put your contact details in Swedish on the product (or on the packaging or an accompanying document) and supply instructions and safety information in Swedish (PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 13 and 14).
• Give PTS in Swedish the information it asks for under section 22 of the Act, and keep the supplier and customer information of section 23 for five years (PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 15 and 16).
• If you make a self-service terminal (a payment terminal, cash machine, ticketing or check-in machine, or interactive self-service information terminal), give it text-to-speech technology, personal headset use, multisensory warning and extendable response time, suitable contrast and tactile keys, an accessibility function that starts without prior activation, and hearing-aid compatibility where it uses sound (PTSFS 2024:5, s. 17; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Annex I, Section I, point 2(o)).
• If you make an e-reader, give it text-to-speech technology (PTSFS 2024:5, s. 18).
• If you make consumer terminal equipment for electronic communications services, support real-time text and total conversation where it has text or video capability, connect effectively to hearing technology and avoid interference with assistive devices; if it is for access to audiovisual media services, make the provider's accessibility components accessible (PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 19 and 20).

PTSFS 2024:7, Post- och telestyrelsens föreskrifter om kriterier för bedömning av oproportionerligt stor börda · Read the law's page

• When you assess whether an accessibility requirement imposes a disproportionate burden, count the one-off organizational costs of additional accessibility staff, training and competence, a new process for including accessibility in development or service provision, guidance material, and reading the accessibility legislation (PTSFS 2024:7, s. 3).
• Also count the costs of ongoing manufacture and development: designing accessibility features, the manufacturing process, testing for accessibility, and documentation (PTSFS 2024:7, s. 4).

Tillgänglighetsförordningen (2023:676), 4-7 a §§ och bilagorna 1-3 · Read the law's page

• If you place a product covered by the Act on the market, make it meet Annex 1: easily accessible information on its function and accessibility features on or with the product, information that can be perceived by more than one sense, a user interface and functions that persons with disabilities can access, perceive, operate, understand and control, accessible support services, and accessible packaging and instructions (Ordinance, s. 4 and Annex 1; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Annex I, Section I and II).
• If you provide a service covered by the Act, make it meet Annex 2: the products used in the service meet Annex 1, information about how the service works is accessible, websites and mobile services are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, and support services give accessibility information (Ordinance, s. 6 and Annex 2; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Annex I, Section III).
• From 1 May 2026, where Annexes 1 and 2 do not cover a function in the design of a product or the provision of a service, use the functional performance criteria in Annex 3, which you may also use as an alternative to a specific technical requirement if the result is equivalent or better accessibility (Ordinance, s. 7 a and Annex 3; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Annex I, Section VII).

Tillgänglighetslagen (2023:254), produkter, 3 §, 6 §, 7 §, 9 § och 11-23 §§ · Read the law's page

• If you make a product listed in section 3 of the Act (general-purpose consumer computers and their operating systems, payment terminals, cash machines, ticketing and check-in machines, interactive self-service information terminals, consumer terminal equipment used for electronic communications or for access to audiovisual media services, e-readers), place it on the market only if it meets the accessibility requirements on information, user interface and functional design in Annex 1 to Förordning (2023:676) and the supplementary rules of PTSFS 2024:5 (Act, s. 6; Ordinance, s. 4; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 4(1)).
• As the manufacturer, before placing the product on the market, assess whether it conforms to the accessibility requirements and whether an exemption under section 7 applies, by internal production control, and prepare and keep technical documentation that lists the harmonized standards or technical specifications applied and the solutions chosen where they were not applied (Act, s. 11; PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 3 to 6; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 7(2)).
• Keep procedures that make every unit made conform, and update them when the product's design or characteristics, or the harmonized standards or technical specifications you rely on, change (Act, s. 11; PTSFS 2024:5, s. 7; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 7(4)).
• Draw up an EU declaration of conformity in Swedish for each product model, update it continuously, state in it which requirements an invoked exemption covers, and affix the CE marking before the product is placed on the market (Act, s. 12; Ordinance, ss. 13 and 15; PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 8 and 9; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Arts. 7(2) and 16).
• Keep the technical documentation and the EU declaration of conformity for five years from the day the product was placed on the market (Ordinance, s. 14; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 7(3)).
• Mark the product with its traceability (type, batch or serial number), your contact details with a single address in Swedish, and supply instructions and safety information in Swedish on how the consumer is to use it (Act, s. 13; PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 10 to 12; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 7(5) to (7)).
• If you appoint a representative by written mandate, authorise it at least to keep the technical documentation and declaration available to the authority for five years, to give the authority information on request and to cooperate on remedies; the design duty and the technical documentation stay with you (Act, s. 14; Ordinance, ss. 17 and 18; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 8).
• As an importer, ensure before placing a product on the market that the manufacturer has carried out the assessment, documentation, declaration, marking and information steps, put your own contact details and instructions in Swedish on the product, and be able to show the EU declaration to the authority for five years (Act, s. 15; Ordinance, s. 20; PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 13 and 14; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 9).
• As a distributor, check before making the product available that it carries the CE marking and the information text (Act, s. 16; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 10).
• As an importer or distributor, keep storage and transport conditions from jeopardizing conformity; if you place a product on the market under your own name or trademark, or modify it so that conformity may be affected, you take on the manufacturer's duties (Act, ss. 17 and 18).
• If you consider that a product does not conform, a manufacturer or importer takes the corrective action at once or withdraws the product and keeps a register of non-conforming products and complaints; a distributor does not make the product available until action has been taken (Act, ss. 19 and 20).
• Notify the market surveillance authorities of every Member State where the product was made available, at once, with details of the non-conformity and the action taken, and inform the manufacturer (or, for a distributor, the importer) and PTS where you intend to place or make available a product you consider non-conforming (Act, s. 21; Ordinance, s. 19).
• On request from a market surveillance authority, give it in Swedish all the information you hold that is needed to assess conformity, cooperate on remedies, and say who supplied you with a product and to whom you supplied one, for five years after supply or receipt (Act, ss. 22 and 23; PTSFS 2024:5, ss. 15 and 16).

Tillgänglighetslagen (2023:254), tillsyn och sanktioner, 28-41 §§ · Read the law's page

• Remedy a deficiency in a product or service within the time the market surveillance authority or supervisory authority sets when it calls on you to do so, and comply with the orders it makes if you do not (Act, ss. 32 and 34; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Arts. 19 and 23).
• If you deal with products, give the market surveillance authority on demand documents, specifications, data or information, access to premises, land and means of transport, and product samples it may obtain, inspect and dismantle (Act, s. 29; Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Art. 14(4)(a), (b), (e) and (j)).
• Pay a sanction fee decided under section 37 within thirty days of the decision becoming final or within the longer time the decision states; the fee is paid to Kammarkollegiet (Act, s. 40; Ordinance, s. 33).
• If you are an economic operator and the authority orders you, under sections 32 to 34, to remedy a deficiency, expect the order to carry a vite that the administrative court can impose on the authority's application if you do not comply (Act, s. 35; Vite Act (1985:206), ss. 3 and 6).

Tillgänglighetslagen (2023:254), undantag, 7 §, 8 §, 10 § och 33 § · Read the law's page

• If you rely on a fundamental alteration of the product or service or on a disproportionate burden to set an accessibility requirement aside, document and keep your assessment with the reasons, and notify the market surveillance authority or supervisory authority that you invoke the exemption (Act, ss. 7 and 8; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(2) and (3)).
• Base a disproportionate-burden assessment on the net costs of compliance in relation to your total costs and net turnover, and on the estimated costs and benefits in relation to the estimated benefit for persons with disabilities, applying the cost items of PTSFS 2024:7 (Ordinance, s. 8).
• If you provide a service and rely on a disproportionate burden, renew the assessment within five years of the last one, and sooner when the service is altered or a supervisory authority asks (Ordinance, s. 10; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(5)).
• Keep the documentation of the assessment for at least five years from the last time a product was made available or a service provided, and give a copy to the authority on request (Act, s. 8; Ordinance, s. 11).
• You cannot rely on a disproportionate burden if you received external funds to make the product or service more accessible and an exemption reasonably should not apply (Act, s. 7, second paragraph; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(6)).
• If the authority finds shortcomings in your assessment, remedy them within the time it sets, or make a new assessment within the time it orders (Act, s. 33).
• A manufacturer that relies on the exemption states in the EU declaration of conformity which requirements it covers; an importer ensures the manufacturer has completed the assessment, declaration and marking steps, and a distributor checks the CE marking and information text before the product is made available (Act, ss. 12, 15 and 16).
• If you are a microenterprise that deals with products and invoke an exemption, you need not document the assessment or notify the authority, but must give the market surveillance authority the facts relevant to the assessment if it asks (Act, s. 10; Directive (EU) 2019/882, Art. 14(4)).

Lagrådsremiss En ny produktansvarslag · Read the law's page

• The draft Produktansvarslag excludes free and open-source software that you develop or supply outside a business activity (Ch. 1, Sec. 1).
• If you develop, manufacture or produce a product, software included, or put your name, trade mark or another mark on it to present yourself as its maker, you answer as its manufacturer for damage a safety deficiency in it causes (Ch. 1, Sec. 4; Ch. 3, Sec. 1).
• Keep supplying the software updates and upgrades needed to keep the product safe while it is within your control: a deficiency due to your software or a related service is not excused because it arose after you placed the product on the market (Ch. 1, Sec. 4; Ch. 3, Sec. 5, second paragraph).
• Meet the product safety rules that apply to your product: they count in deciding whether it has a safety deficiency, and failing a rule meant to prevent the damage presumes a deficiency (Ch. 2, Secs. 2 and 4).
• Account for what your product learns or acquires after release: the effect of any ability to keep learning or to acquire new features is weighed in deciding whether it has a safety deficiency (Ch. 2, Sec. 2(4)).
• Be ready to produce a document or an object when a court orders it under the Code of Judicial Procedure; failing to do so presumes the product has a safety deficiency (Ch. 2, Sec. 4(1)).
• If you manufacture outside the European Economic Area, your importer, your representative or, where there is neither, your provider of distribution services answers for the product (Ch. 3, Sec. 1(3) and (4)).
• If you substantially change a product outside its manufacturer's control and then supply it, you answer as its manufacturer (Ch. 3, Sec. 4).
• If you distribute a product, or provide an online platform that lets a consumer conclude a distance contract with a trader, refer the injured person to the liable person established in the European Economic Area or to your own supplier within one month, or you answer for the product (Ch. 3, Secs. 2 and 3).
• Be able to show that you did not put the product on the market, that the deficiency probably did not exist then, that it results from compliance with product safety rules, or that scientific and technical knowledge made it impossible to discover (Ch. 3, Sec. 5).
• Do not rely on a contract term that is worse for the injured person than the Act: it has no effect against that person (Ch. 1, Sec. 5).