Tesla sues Swedish government, postal workers block license plates

Tesla filed a lawsuit against the Swedish Transport Agency on Monday after postal workers began to block deliveries of license plates for the company’s cars.

Swedish postal workers blocked Tesla license plate deliveries as a show of solidarity with striking workers. Swedish unions have pressured Tesla with strikes and blockades over the company’s refusal so far to sign a collective bargaining agreement with employees in its service division, including technicians and mechanics who repair and maintain customers’ cars.

Tesla claims the Swedish government has a “constitutional obligation to provide registration plates to vehicle owners,” according to the documents. The suit was filed with the Norrköping district court Monday. It also sued the postal service, according to Bloomberg.

The lawsuit filing said Tesla delivered 9,167 cars to Sweden in 2022 and that the Model Y is the best-selling car in the country so far in 2023. Tesla delivered 435,059 cars in Q3, according to its vehicle production and delivery report on Oct. 2.

A Tesla spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment.

“This seizure of license plates constitutes a discriminatory attack without any support in law directed at Tesla. This measure cannot be described in any other way than as a unique attack on a company operating in Sweden,” Tesla said in the filing, which CNBC translated to English.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday, “This is insane,” in a post on X, the site he owns formerly known as Twitter, in reference to a story about the blocked plates.

The lawsuit claims Tesla should be able to collect license plates directly “into Tesla’s possession” instead of receiving them by mail, according to the filing.

Shares of Tesla were down less than 1% Monday.

Representatives for the Swedish government did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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