ARN - The National Board for Consumer Complaints
What is ARN?
The National Board for Consumer Complaints (ARN) is a public authority that functions roughly like a court. Its main task is to impartially try disputes between consumers and business operators. Petitions are filed by the consumer.
The Board submits recommendations on how disputes should be resolved, for example that the business operator shall repair the defect on a product. The Board's recommendations are not binding, but the majority of companies nonetheless follow them.
The Board does not provide advice on individual cases. If you need advice, you can turn to consumer counselling services in your municipality.
A petition to the board must be made in writing. The Board can only accept petitions and communications in Swedish. Forms can be downloaded here.
It usually takes about six months from the petition to a decision. The Board's inquiry is free of charge.
The Board's departments
The Board is divided into thirteen different departments. The departments' names and their primary focus areas are the following.
| General Department: |
goods and services that do not belong to any other department, e.g. sporting goods, timepieces, optics, removal assignments. |
| Banking Department: |
services carried out by banks, financial institutions, brokerages etc. |
| Housing Department: |
goods and services concerning housing and electricity. |
| Boating Department: |
sailboats, motorboats and boating accessories. |
| Electronics Department: |
electrical domestic appliances and home electronics. |
| Estate Agents Department: |
Disputes between consumers and estate agents |
| Furniture Department: |
Furniture |
| Insurance Department: |
insurance policies |
| Motor Vehicle Department: |
new and used cars, motorcycles, tyres etc. |
| Travel Department: |
travel, cabin or cottage rental etc. |
| Shoe Department: |
shoes and boots. |
| Textiles Department: |
clothes and household textiles. |
| Cleaning Services Department: |
services provided by laundries. |
Deadlines
Note that a petition to ARN must be made
within six months of the first time the business operator rejects your claims in part or in whole. If the business operator does not respond to your complaint at all, it is considered as if he/she has rejected your claims.
Additionally, your claim must exceed a certain amount.
Value limitations
For a petition to be tried, your claim must exceed certain value limitations.
The following value limitations are applicable to the various departments:
- 500 SEK: matters that fall under the Shoe, Textiles (clothes, household textiles) or General Departments
- 1000 SEK: matters that fall under the Electronics, Motor Vehicles, Travel, Textiles (Furniture) or Cleaning Service Departments
- 2000 SEK: matters that fall under the Banking, Housing, Boating or Insurance Departments
If a dispute is of a principle nature or if there are other special circumstances, the Board can choose to try the dispute despite the claim being below the value limitations.
Other exceptions
There are also some other exceptions concerning certain types of matters that the Board does not try. The Board does not try e.g.:
- disputes between private persons or between business operators
- disputes concerning health care or medical care services
- disputes concerning legal services
- disputes concerning the purchase of property and houses/flats
- rental disputes and disputes with tenant-owners' societies
- disputes that have been submitted to court for trial
- disputes concerning art and antiquities, to the extent that the dispute deals with the goods' artistic value or collector value
- disputes where the business operator has entered bankruptcy
The Board's inquiry is normally limited to contracts that have been entered into in Sweden.
The Board can also reject matters that cannot sufficiently be investigated or that otherwise are not appropriate to the Board's inquiry with regard to the Board's written procedures and simplified working methods. This can affect e.g. matters, which require submission of verbal evidence, or large or complicated cases that require a comprehensive investigation.
What does the process look like?
The process at the Board is purely in writing. If the matter is not rejected for formal reasons, the Board asks the company to comment on the consumer's claims. The consumer in turn has an opportunity to see and comment on the company's response. Both parties have the right to submit written evidence in the form of e.g. contracts or certificates of inspection.
How is a dispute settled?
The dispute is usually settled at a meeting with the department under which the matter falls. The parties are not entitled to be present at the meeting.
A department constitutes a quorum (may make a decision) when the chairperson and four other members are present. A department also constitutes a quorum with the chairperson and two other members, unless one of the members requests that four members participate. The chairperson is a lawyer and has court experience. The other members come from various consumer and trade organizations.
Simple matters or matters in which the company does not respond are settled at the secretariat.
Cross-border disputes
Consumers that have come into conflict with a business operator in a country within the EU other than their own can turn to their European Consumer Centre or Euroguichet for advice and help. A list of current European Consumer Centres is available at the
European Commission's website. The Swedish European Consumer Centre is called
Konsument Europa.
The centres work in a network, EEC-Net, with the aim of providing consumers access to fast and easy dispute resolution. Norway and Iceland are also included in this network. In Sweden, the National Board for Consumer Complaints (ARN) has the task of trying disputes that arise between consumers from other EU countries and Swedish business operators.
For financial disputes there is a special European network that takes care of cross-border disputes in the financial arena. As for Sweden, Konsument Europa is a part of this network while the National Board for Consumer Complaints is the authority that tries disputes in Sweden in this arena.
Konsument Europa also provides information on cross-border electronic commerce.
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