Investigation of the publishing certificate

The Swedish government decided on 13 June 2019 to further expand the assignment given to so-called Committé of Freedom of Press and Expression (Sw. tryck- och yttrandefrihetskommittén), that shall assess the need to restrict the constitutional protection of search engines that publish information relating to offences committed by individuals. The operations that may be subject to such restrictions are for example, websites including search engines that make available information on whether individuals are charged with crimes or if they are involved in disputes.

Today, several of these websites holds a so-called publishing certificate (Sw. utgivningsbevis). As a result thereof, they are for example exempted from complying with the GDPR and are therefore able to freely make available information relating to offences committed by individuals. If a restriction on the constitutional protection is enforced, these websites may no longer be permitted to make available such information.

The government’s decision is available here.

Please contact us for more information or if you have any question on how this may affect your business.

Lisa Ericsson, Advokat

John Park, Associate