Pursuant to Chapter 7, Section 2 of the Swedish Bookkeeping Act, accounting records pertaining to Swedish entities acting as data controllers must be retained for at least seven years within the territory of Sweden.

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides a comprehensive framework for data protection that applies to all EU Member States. The GDPR was implemented in Sweden through a variety of pieces of legislation including the Act with supplementary provisions to the GDPR (SFS 2018:218) and the Ordinance with Supplementary Provisions to the GDPR (SFS 2018:219).

Under the EU Directive on Data Retention, operators were required to retain certain categories of traffic and location data (excluding the content of those communications) for a period between six months and two years and to make them available, on request, to law enforcement authorities for the purposes of investigating, detecting and prosecuting serious crime and terrorism. On 8 April 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union declared the Directive invalid. However, not all national laws that implemented the Directive have been overturned.
In Sweden, Section 22 of Chapter 9 of the Electronic Communications Act (SFS 2022:482) stipulates minimum periods of retention for certain types of data in order to aid law enforcement. This requires, inter alia, that telecommunications operators retain internet access data for ten months, location information for two months, and call data for six months. These requirements were previously outlined in Section 16 d of Chapter 6 of the Act (2003:389) on Electronic Communication (as amended in 2019), which has been superseded by the 2022 Act.

The Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive) is the legal basis governing the liability of Internet Services Providers (ISPs) in the EU Member States and includes a conditional safe harbour. Not all Member States have transposed the relevant articles consistently, leading to divergent national case law that could cause legal insecurity on an EU level.
The Act on Electronic Commerce and Information Society Services (2002) implements Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive), however it fails to establish a conditional safe harbour for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Sweden.

The Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive) is the legal basis governing the liability of Internet Services Providers (ISPs) in the EU Member States and includes a conditional safe harbour. Not all Member States have transposed the relevant articles consistently, leading to divergent national case law that could cause legal insecurity on an EU level.
The Act on Electronic Commerce and Information Society Services (2002) implements Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive), however it fails to establish a conditional safe harbour for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Sweden.

As stipulated in Art. 24 of Law 2022:482 on Electronic Communications, as amended by the Swedish statute book (SFS) 2022:1086, any individual or entity offering an interpersonal communication service based on publicly available prepaid numbers or a prepaid Internet connection service is prohibited from providing access to the service without first registering the following details: (1) the name and postal address of the subscriber, (2) the subscriber's social security number, coordination number, organisation number, or other identification number, and (3) the number or other designation of the service. Additionally, the provider must record the time of registration, and this information must be retained and made available for up to one year after the cessation of service provision.

Art. 17 of Directive 2019/790 on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) mandates that providers of content-sharing services seek authorisation from rights holders and implement technical solutions to remove and prevent unauthorised uploads by their users (so-called upload filters), under penalty of losing their liability safe harbour. Further arrangements are envisaged for complaints and dispute resolution mechanisms. Such upload filters are reported to be a significant cost for online platforms. Graduated exemptions are expected to be put in place for new providers active in the EU for less than three years with a turnover under EUR 10 million, and with fewer than five million users. The provision is subject to a challenge in the Court of Justice by Poland (C-401/19).
Sweden has not yet implemented the Directive 2019/790.

The Act on Responsibility for Electronic Bulletin Board requires internet sites, where users can post comments about a particular issue or topic and reply to other users' postings (i.e. bulletin boards), to monitor the service regularly and to an extent that may reasonably be required taking into account the scope and nature of the service. An intentional or grossly negligent violation of the obligation to remove illegal content is considered as a criminal offence. The Act includes an information duty (Section 3), a supervision duty (Section 4), and a duty to erase certain messages (Section 5).
This is despite Art. 15 of Directive 2000/31/EC (e-Commerce Directive) stating that Member States should not impose on providers a general obligation to monitor the information which they transmit or store, nor a general obligation actively to seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity.

The Protective Security Act, which was amended in 2019 to allow Swedish security and intelligence forces to recommend the revocation of operating licenses for firms in sectors important to national security if they are found to pose a security risk. The law was used in 2020 to ban Huawei and ZTE equipment from being used in the Swedish network. Specifically, the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) has told telecommunications operators in Sweden vying for licensing rights at auction that bids including Huawei or ZTE equipment will not be considered, and pre-existing Huawei and ZTE infrastructure would need to be decommissioned by 2025. This effective ban on Huawei and ZTE equipment has been challenged in court, but so far, the decision has been upheld in the Swedish court.

Art. 85 of the Utilities Directive (2014/25/EU) contains provisions allowing contracting public entities to reject foreign goods not covered by any EU international commitments from its tender procedures. In these cases, a tender submitted for the award of a supply contract may be rejected where the proportion of the products originating in third countries exceeds 50% of the total value of the products constituting the tender (Art. 85.2). Additionally, in cases of equivalent offers, the provisions provide for a preference for European tenders and tenders covered by EU's international obligations. In practice, this possibility has rarely been used.
In Sweden, the Directive has been transposed with the Law (2016:1146) on Procurement in the Utilities Sector and the Procurement Regulations.

There are no foreign ownership limitations in sectors relevant for digital trade.

According to Section 9 of the Companies Act, at least 50% of the board of directors of a limited liability company must be European Economic Area (EEA) residents unless granted an exemption by the Swedish Companies Registration Office.

Amendments to the Protective Security Act 2018 (PSA) grant the Swedish Government the authority to oversee and potentially block investments that may threaten national security. The Act also empowers Swedish security services and armed forces to conduct security inspections on firms operating in sectors deemed critical to national security and, if necessary, revoke operating licenses if breaches are identified. One of the sectors covered by this legislation is telecommunications. The Act deliberately refrains from providing a detailed definition of "security-sensitive activity". According to Chapter 1, Section 1 of the PSA, security-sensitive activities include (i) activities crucial to Sweden's security or (ii) activities bound by an international protective security commitment that Sweden has undertaken. It is reported that the preparatory works of the PSA suggest that activities within certain sectors may be considered security sensitive, such as essential services related to electronic communications, including operational centres, key interconnection points with equipment for traffic exchange and signalling, and major transmission networks, as well as key civil infrastructure like stations for electronic communications, 5G technologies, and radio and TV.
The PSA has been used by the Swedish security services to ban Huawei from operating in Sweden in 2020, as they deemed the equipment to pose a security risk to the country.

In December 2023, the Act (2023:560) on the Screening of Foreign Direct Investments entered into force, introducing substantial changes to the regulatory framework governing foreign investments in Sweden. According to Art. 7 of the law, foreign investors engaging in sensitive sectors are mandated to secure authorisation from the reviewing authority before executing the investment. The authority holds the power to approve, conditionally approve, or prohibit the investment based on considerations related to public order or national security.
The FDI Act applies to investments in undertakings with a registered office in Sweden, including indirect transfers of shares and transfers of shares in listed companies. According to Art. 7, any prospective foreign investor in protected activities notify the inspection authority before investing if: (i) they would hold 10% or more of the votes in a relevant entity, (ii) acquire or form an entity engaging in protected activities, (iii) become a partner in a trading company conducting such activities, (iv) form a foundation engaging in these activities, or (v) gain direct or indirect influence over the management of entities or foundations involved in protected activities.
The Act covers various sectors, including essential services, security-sensitive activities (as defined in Art. 2 of the Protective Security Act), the processing of sensitive personal data or location data, the processing of sensitive personal data or location data, research or the supply of products or technology relating to emerging technologies and other strategically protected technologies.

It has been reported that patent filing fees for foreign applicants in Sweden are higher than those for domestic applicants. The Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV) suggests that non-residents may need to engage a local agent to file a patent. According to the Swedish Intellectual Property Office, fees for foreign patent applications range from 140 to 18,610 SEK (approximately 13 to 1,700 USD), while fees for domestic applicants range from 150 to 8,450 SEK (approximately 14 to 800 USD). Additionally, inventions made in Sweden that have implications for national security require authorisation from the Swedish patent office before they can be filed abroad.