ARN complaint surge hits travel and used cars, Sweden’s dispute system slows toward one-year waits

• ARN has received nearly 13,000 complaints so far this year, up 63 percent from the same period last year.
• The agency forecasts around 34,000 cases in 2026, which would be a record level.
• Travel complaints and disputes over used cars account for much of the increase.
• ARN warns that waiting times for decisions could stretch to as long as one year.

Nearly 13,000 complaints have already reached Sweden’s Allmänna reklamationsnämnden, ARN, the National Board for Consumer Disputes, this year — 63 percent more than in the same period last year. Sveriges Radio Ekot reports that the agency now expects complaint volumes to reach about 34,000 cases in 2026, a level ARN says would be without precedent in its own records. The steepest increases are in travel disputes and claims involving used cars, two markets where small margins and large household costs meet quickly when the economy tightens.

ARN describes both consumers and companies as being under heavier financial pressure. That changes behaviour on both sides. A family that might once have absorbed the cost of a cancelled trip or a faulty second-hand car now files a complaint; a seller with weaker cash flow has more reason to resist refunds, repairs or compensation. Travel cases also carry a delayed afterlife from the pandemic years, when cancellations, rebookings and contested reimbursements moved through companies, insurers and agencies at different speeds. Used-car disputes point to another strain: when new cars are expensive and credit is tighter, more buyers move into the second-hand market, where condition, warranties and liability are often disputed after the sale.

For consumers, ARN is meant to be a low-cost alternative to court. For companies, it offers a formal route to settle disputes without full litigation. That bargain weakens when decisions can take up to a year. A traveller waiting for compensation may have long since paid interest on the credit card bill; a buyer in a car dispute may have already paid for repairs, sold the vehicle or stopped using it. On the business side, a pending ARN case can leave revenue, inventory or customer claims unresolved for months. The system still avoids legal fees, but delay creates a different bill.

The pressure also exposes a familiar feature of Swedish administrative redress: demand rises fastest when the underlying market gets rougher. ARN does not create the disputes; it receives them after the transaction has already failed. But once the queue grows, the remedy itself becomes part of the dispute. A decision delivered after a holiday has been forgotten or after a used car has changed hands is still a decision. It is just worth less than it was when the complaint was filed.

ARN’s forecast points to 34,000 cases next year. Its warning on waiting times is simpler: a complaint filed now may still be sitting on a desk when next summer’s travel season begins.

Källor: Sveriges Radio Ekot