Enforcement 10/26: Enforcement of Biocidal Products 2025

A national joint project was carried out in which the Swedish Chemicals Agency provided guidance to 79 municipalities on the enforcement of regulations governing biocidal products. The aim of the project was to increase compliance with the rules, achieve more consistent supervision and increase knowledge among both municipalities and companies.

A total of 79 municipalities participated, representing 27 percent of all municipalities in Sweden, which is comparable in scale to previous collaborative projects. In total, 391 retailers and 1,564 biocidal products were controlled.

• 94 percent of the controlled biocidal products were authorised for sale, indicating a relatively high level of overall compliance.
• At the same time, non-compliances were found for 68 percent of the controlled companies.
• 53 percent of the controlled companies did not fulfil the information requirements when selling biocidal products to consumers.
• 6 percent of the controlled products were illegal to sell. These included products where the approval had expired and products that had never been authorised for sale on the Swedish market.
• Municipal inspections resulted in illegal products being removed from the market.
• 7 percent of the controlled companies were subject to enforcement measures, either an environmental sanction fee and/or a report to the prosecutor for suspected offences. In total, two environmental sanction fees were imposed, and 27 cases were reported to the prosecutor for suspected offences.
• The Swedish Chemicals Agency carried out 23 inspections of primary suppliers. Some companies had more serious non-compliances that resulted in enforcement measures and reports to the prosecutor.

The project concludes that many companies need to increase their knowledge of the rules governing biocidal products and improve their internal controls to ensure compliance with the requirements. Municipal supervision also needs to continue to develop and should be combined with further development of guidance for municipalities in order to improve and harmonize the supervision.