Winter tires

STRO has, according to previous decisions with the Swedish and Norwegian traffic authorities, stopped publishing the winter tire lists!

The STRO Board has decided to discontinue the publication of winter tire lists, the lists of tires for passenger cars and heavy vehicles that are considered by the respective tire manufacturers to meet the requirements for winter tires in Swedish and Norwegian regulations.

Ever since the current definitions and requirements for winter tires in Swedish and Norwegian regulations were introduced, i.e. that a winter tire is a tire that is “specially designed for winter driving”, the lists have served a very good function as consumer information.

In the mid-1990s when STRO winter tire lists were introduced, there was no label with a qualifying performance test as a requirement. A few years ago, the 3PMSF (alpine peak/snowflake) label was introduced with functional testing on snow as a basis. It is this label and performance test that, according to UN ECE R117, qualifies a tire for use in “severe snow conditions”.
The development of new test methods may in the future provide opportunities for more labels on tires and thus clearer information to both retailers and consumers about which tires not only meet the legal requirements, but are also recommended for Nordic winter conditions.

More and more countries, not least in Europe, are introducing rules regarding the use of winter tires, and where the definitions in UN ECE R117 are the basis for the requirements in these rules.
In light of all this, STRO today believes that these lists no longer serve the function they did when they, at the request of the authorities, were once introduced.
The opportunities and tools for the introduction of clearer legislation exist today, which is why we believe that the removal of the lists will not pose any problems for authorities, manufacturers and suppliers to provide relevant consumer information.

Another aspect is that maintaining winter tire lists may conflict with existing EU or national competition law.

The updating and publication of STRO winter tire lists will be discontinued as of 1 January 2019.