# Claiming EU261 in Sweden: ten years, and ARN''s one-year rule Source: https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/claim-in-sweden/ > Ten years to sue under Sweden''s Preskriptionslag s.2, but ARN''s one-year rule counts from your first complaint to the airline if you want its board. # How long you have to claim compensation for a flight in Sweden 10 years is Sweden's limitation period for an [EU261](https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/) claim, not the three years that circulates on some guides. Preskriptionslag (1981:130) Section 2 sets a general ten-year rule, and that shorter figure belongs to a different situation entirely. A second, much shorter clock matters more in practice: ARN, Sweden's consumer dispute board, will only hear a case brought within one year of your first complaint to the airline. Below: why ten years is correct, which one a reader is actually likely to miss, which flights the rule covers, and how to complain before either clock runs out. ## How long do you have to bring an EU261 claim in Sweden? 10 years is how long you have to bring an EU261 claim in Sweden. Preskriptionslag (1981:130) Section 2 states plainly: "en fordran preskriberas tio år efter tillkomsten", a claim is time-barred ten years after it arises. That is the rule for a passenger's claim against an airline. The "3 years" figure quoted by some secondary sources does come from the same section, and it is real, just not for this claim. Section 2 also carries a shorter shortcut, but that shortcut runs the other way: it shortens a trader's claim against a consumer, not a consumer's claim against a trader. An airline is the trader here, and a passenger is the consumer, so the shortcut simply does not apply. Read backwards, it produces exactly the wrong figure that some secondary sources repeat. Source: Preskriptionslag (1981:130) Section 2 - Riksdagen, checked 2026-09-18. Work to the full ten years for a Swedish court claim, and treat any "three years" figure you see elsewhere as the shortcut misapplied. ## Why is the Swedish period not three years? No deadline comes from EU261 itself. Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11) held that a compensation claim's time limit is set by each Member State's own limitation law, and Sweden answers with Preskriptionslag Section 2's general ten-year rule for a claim of this kind. Three years would apply only if the roles were reversed, an airline chasing a passenger for money the passenger owed it, which is not the situation an EU261 compensation claim describes. Section 2's structure sets one general period and one direction-specific shortcut; only the general period reaches a passenger's claim against an airline. The ten years is Section 2's general rule, and nothing in the Regulation itself shortens it. A guide that quotes three years for Sweden has read the shortcut from the wrong side of the transaction: it is the trader's claim that shrinks, never the passenger's. Source: CJEU C-139/11, Cuadrench Moré - eur-lex.europa.eu; Preskriptionslag (1981:130) Section 2 - Riksdagen, checked 2026-09-18. Do not shorten your own deadline to three years on the strength of a rule that, read correctly, does not apply to your claim. ## Which flights does Sweden's deadline govern? Every flight leaving a Swedish airport falls under article 3(1)(a) of EU261, whichever airline operates it. An arrival from outside the EU is covered only on a Community carrier, and not for a passenger who already received benefits, compensation and assistance in that third country; otherwise EU261 does not reach the flight. Enforcement follows scope under article 16. Sweden's regulator is competent for a flight leaving a Swedish airport, on any carrier, and for a qualifying arrival from a third country into Stockholm Arlanda or any other Swedish airport. A flight into Sweden from elsewhere in the EU belongs to a different state: article 16(1) assigns each body the flights leaving its own airports, so a Gothenburg-bound flight that started in Amsterdam is for the Dutch body, not Sweden's, although article 16(2) still lets a passenger complain to any designated body about an infringement at an EU airport. Source: EU261 art. 3(1)(a)-(b), art. 16(1)-(2) - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15. Confirm the operating carrier's licence and the departure airport before assuming Sweden's ten-year rule, rather than another country's, applies to your flight. ## Who handles a complaint in Sweden, and what is ARN's one-year rule? Konsumentverket (the Swedish Consumer Agency) is Sweden's National Enforcement Body for EU261, and its own page routes a compensation dispute to ARN, Allmänna reklamationsnämnden. ARN is the free or low-cost venue passengers turn to once an airline refuses to pay, and it runs a one-year clock of its own. ARN applies its own Ettårsregeln: a complaint must reach ARN within one year of your first complaint to the airline, or ARN will not open a case. That is an admissibility rule for ARN's process specifically, not the legal limitation period; missing it forecloses ARN, not a Swedish court claim, which still runs on the ten-year Preskriptionslag Section 2 period. ARN is where a refused claim for the EU261 scale goes: EUR 250, EUR 400 or EUR 600 by distance, a payment the airline escapes only by proving extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures; meals and hotel owed while waiting are not removed by that defence. The Commission's own list names an [enforcement body for every EU country](https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/national-enforcement-bodies/), not only Sweden's. Source: Konsumentverket - konsumentverket.se; ARN, tvisteomraden - arn.se, checked 2026-09-18. Complain to the airline first, then bring an unresolved claim to ARN within a year of that first complaint, not a year from your flight. ## What to do before the deadline runs out 10 years is generous, and that is exactly why it is the wrong clock to watch first in Sweden. ARN's one-year Ettårsregeln is the deadline most likely to catch a passenger out, because a claim that is still years away from its legal limit can already be too late for the ARN route. Note the date of your first complaint to the airline, because that date, not your flight date, starts ARN's one-year clock. Write to the airline in plain terms, naming the flight, the date, what happened and the amount you are claiming under EU261, and keep that letter's own date as your record. A flight from Malmö sits a bridge away from one leaving Copenhagen, yet [claiming EU261 in Denmark](https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/claim-in-denmark/) runs a three-year court deadline where Sweden gives ten, so never assume a neighbouring country's figure applies here. If ARN's window has already closed, a Swedish court claim is still open for the full ten years, and a straightforward case may also fit the [small claims routes used across Europe](https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/small-claims-europe/); every country's own period sits side by side on [flight compensation time limits](https://airtravelrights.com/flight-compensation-time-limits/). General information about EU261 claims in Sweden, not legal advice. For your specific case: Konsumentverket, ARN or a lawyer in Sweden. Mark your first complaint date today, because ARN's one-year window, not the ten-year court deadline, is the one a reader actually risks missing. ## Sources - Preskriptionslag (1981:130) Section 2 - [Riksdagen](https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/preskriptionslag-1981130_sfs-1981-130/), checked 2026-09-18. - Konsumentverket, Inställt flyg - [konsumentverket.se](https://www.konsumentverket.se/varor-och-tjanster-process/installt-flyg/), checked 2026-09-18. - ARN, Tvisteområden - [arn.se](https://www.arn.se/tvisteomraden/), checked 2026-09-18. - Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, arts. 3, 7, 16 - [eur-lex.europa.eu](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261), checked 2026-09-15. - CJEU C-139/11, Cuadrench Moré - [eur-lex.europa.eu](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62011CJ0139). - European Commission, National Enforcement Bodies - Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (updated 27 August 2026) - [transport.ec.europa.eu](https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/d7b5dd33-4083-4faa-8132-b6dc8b3a1c07_en), checked 2026-09-15.