Employment and other Long-term Contracts between Unequal Parties in Sweden : a brief comparison of employment, franchise, residential lease and some consumer contracts

Swedish contract law has developed with the sale of goods on the commodity market as its social model. There are, however, several important differences between the ways in which sales of goods and employment relationships are organised. Sales of commodity are typically momentary transactions in which the identity of the parties is regarded as irrelevant. The employment contract is a long-term contract. It is dynamic in the sense that both parties typically intend the content of the contract to change. Further, the parties are not easily exchangeable. Another difference is that in traditional contract law the parties are assumed to have equal bargaining power, while in labour law the basic assumption stipulates that employees constitute the weaker party and that they are therefore in need of protection. The aim of the report is to discuss the ways in which these differences are reflected in the legal regulation of the employment contract, together with the corresponding questions regarding other types of contracts sharing some of the characteristics of the employment contract, such as franchise contracts, residential lease contracts and different types of consumer contracts. In section 2 a comparison of the main actors regulating the different contract types are made, and types of regulatory measures which are commonly used is described. Section 3 deals with contract forms. Section 4 describes the principles of general contract law concerning the duration of long-term contracts and the ways in which these principles can be amended in order to give one party an option to maintain the contract relationship. Section 5 deals with changes in the terms of long-term contracts