The internal reporting channel duty in Sweden
Sweden transposed Directive (EU) 2019/1937 with Lag (2021:890) om skydd för personer som rapporterar om missförhållanden (utfärdad den 7 oktober 2021, SFS 2021:890), i dagligt tal "visselblåsarlagen" (Act (2021:890) on the Protection of Persons Reporting Wrongdoing (the Swedish Whistleblowing Act)). Below is what the national act itself says, with the sources, so your counsel can check every line.
2021-12-17
Add: under 1 kap. 7 §, a collective agreement concluded or approved by a central employee organisation may derogate from the whole of 5 kap. 2, 9 §§ (the internal-channel duty and its design rules), provided the agreement does not remove or restrict rights under Directive 2019/1937.
17 December 2023 for private-sector operators with 50, 249 employees; 17 July 2022 for all other covered operators (transitional provision, point 2, to SFS 2021:890).
Not required, optional. The Act is silent on anonymous reporting; it requires confidential channels, acknowledgement of receipt within 7 days and feedback within 3 months, and 5 kap. 8 § 2 expressly allows acknowledgement to be withheld where it would reveal the reporter's identity. Whether to accept anonymous reports is the employer's choice.
External reporting: sector-specific competent authorities ("behöriga myndigheter") designated in Förordning (2021:949) om skydd för personer som rapporterar om missförhållanden, among them Arbetsmiljöverket, Finansinspektionen, Ekobrottsmyndigheten, Boverket, Elsäkerhetsverket and Fastighetsmäklarinspektionen. Supervision of the internal-channel duty: Arbetsmiljöverket (the Swedish Work Environment Authority).
No fine is attached to failing to establish an internal channel. Arbetsmiljöverket as supervisory authority may order the operator to comply (föreläggande) and may combine the order with a conditional fine, vite (10 kap. 3, 4 §§); the Act sets no maximum amount, it is fixed case by case and enforced through the administrative courts. Separately, an operator that breaches the ban on obstructing reporting or on reprisals must pay damages for the loss caused and for the violation itself (3 kap. 4 §), uncapped except that post-termination loss in dismissal cases is capped by 39 § of the Employment Protection Act (1982:80).
Yes, expressly. 5 kap. 5 §, the independent persons or units authorised to receive reports, follow up and give feedback may be either employees of the operator or employed "hos någon som har anlitats för att hantera rapporteringskanalerna och förfarandena för verksamhetsutövarens räkning" (someone engaged to run the channels on the operator's behalf).
The campaign runs November 2025 to March 2026 (around 70 workplaces, private operators run through head offices, inspected digitally).
One channel for a group that operates in more than one member state
A group with entities in Sweden and elsewhere in the EU does not get one law, it gets one per country: different rules on anonymous reports, different authorities, different deadlines and penalties. We set the channel up once and configure it per entity against each national act, from the same verified reference you are reading.