Agenturföretagen / The Swedish Association of Agents help our members with advice on many different issues. We often get questions from those who are new agents/distributors or as a brand on the Swedish market. Here, we will try to gather some of the questions and answers:

What is an agent?

According to the Swedish Commercial Agency Act, a commercial agent denotesa person who, in business, has agreed with another, the principal, that on behalf of the latter he will independently and enduringly engage in the sale or purchase of goods by obtaining offers to the principal or by concluding agreements in his name.

A general agent is usually an agent who has a whole country as their sales territory.

What is a distributor / sole distributor?

There is no legal definition of a distributor in Sweden.

An Exclusive Distribution Agreement means that one party (the “supplier’) reserves the other party (the “distributor’) a defined territory and undertakes not to deliver to another distributor within such territory.

What is an importer?

An importer is a sole distributor or retailer, but has its principal outside of Sweden.