Sweden Cracks Down on UAVs

A ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden has ruled that camera drones qualify as surveillance cameras and therefore require a licence to use. This overturns a previous ruling by a lower district court in Sweden that camera drones did not constitute surveillance. 

The new rule has taken a hardline stance, providing no exceptions for journalists, and the permit application process is expensive with no guarantee of success. Someone wishing to use a camera drone would now need to go through approximately the same process as setting up a surveillance camera (such as CCTV) in a public place.

UAS Sweden has argued that 5,000 jobs could be at risk by the new law, particularly to the aerial photography and camera drone industry. More than 20,000 drones were sold in Sweden in 2014, and more than 1,000 permits granted for using camera drones for commercial purposes. These current drone owners now face another obstacle to get their drones legally back into the sky.