The administrative court of appeal in
Stockholm said in a statement it believed it was fair to assume that the use of
Huawei's products in central functions of the 5G network "can cause harm
to Sweden's security."
After the UK in the summer of 2020, Sweden
became the second country in Europe and the first in the EU to explicitly ban
Huawei from almost all of the network infrastructure needed to run its 5G
mobile network.
Beijing warned at the time that the Swedish
Post and Telecom Authority's (PTS) decision could have "consequences"
for the Scandinavian country's companies in China, prompting Swedish telecom
giant and Huawei competitor Ericsson to worry about retaliatory measures.
The PTS decision also included a provision
that equipment already installed had to be removed by January 1, 2025, which
the appeals court also confirmed.
"Sweden's security is a particularly
strong interest and the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority's decision is based
on a real, current and sufficiently serious threat to Sweden's security,"
judge Anita Linder said in a statement.
Huawei first appealed the decision to a
lower court which also sided with PTS in June 2021.
In a statement to AFP, Huawei said it was
"disappointed" with the court's decision.
"We will analyse the ruling, and
evaluate our next steps, including other legal remedies under Swedish law and
EU law, in order to continue to safeguard our legitimate rights and
interests," the company said.
In January, the Chinese tech giant
announced it had "initiated arbitration proceedings" under the World
Bank Group's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
(ICSID)," against Sweden for the PTS decision.