Enforcement 9/26: Customs Inspections 2025

The Swedish Chemicals Agency cooperates with the Swedish Customs to stop non-compliant articles, chemical products and pesticides at the border and after import. We control if the products imported from countries outside the EU fulfil the requirements in Sweden.

The articles we controlled in 2025 were electrical products, toys and jewellery. Based on the results of the controls, we decided on an import ban for 293 different types of articles, which covered a total of more than 43,000 articles. These decisions meant that the articles were not placed on the market in Sweden but instead were re-exported to the country of origin or destroyed.

In 2025, we also controlled 52 different chemical products, mainly cleaning and fragrance products, at the border. After the controls, it was ensured that a total of approximately 69,000 products were correctly classified and labelled. In cases where the importer could not ensure that the products were compliant, 11 000 packages were prohibited from being imported into Sweden. 24 out of the 28 products that were controlled after import, corresponding approximately 100 tons, had such incompliances when it comes to classification and labelling that corrective actions was needed before being allowed to be sold again.

During the year, the Swedish Chemicals Agency received 76 inquiries from Swedish Customs regarding pesticides, of which 66 concerned biocidal products and 10 concerned plant protection products. During the controls, it turned out that 13 of the biocide consignments and seven of the plant protection product consignments concerned unauthorised products and these were stopped by Swedish Customs. Examples of products that were stopped are insecticides, disinfectants and herbicides.

The cooperation between the Swedish Chemicals Agency and Swedish Customs is continuously developing and has led to an increased number of controls compared to previous years. The controls have led to dangerous products being stopped from being placed on the Swedish market, and the Swedish Chemicals Agency has come into contact with companies that import these products. These companies are often unknown to the Swedish Chemicals Agency and have not previously been subject to inspections.

The Swedish Chemicals Agency will continue to cooperate with the Customs authority in order to control and stop non-compliant products and further develop the working methods.