diff --git a/scm-ui-components/packages/ui-components/src/apiclient.js b/scm-ui-components/packages/ui-components/src/apiclient.js
index 0d52167d95..ce7de1b757 100644
--- a/scm-ui-components/packages/ui-components/src/apiclient.js
+++ b/scm-ui-components/packages/ui-components/src/apiclient.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 // @flow
 import { contextPath } from "./urls";
-import { createBackendError } from "./errors";
+import {createBackendError, isBackendError, UnauthorizedError} from "./errors";
 import type { BackendErrorContent } from "./errors";
 
 const fetchOptions: RequestOptions = {
@@ -10,9 +10,7 @@ const fetchOptions: RequestOptions = {
   }
 };
 
-function isBackendError(response) {
-  return response.headers.get("Content-Type") === "application/vnd.scmm-error+json;v=2";
-}
+
 
 function handleFailure(response: Response) {
   if (!response.ok) {
@@ -22,6 +20,9 @@ function handleFailure(response: Response) {
           throw createBackendError(content, response.status);
         });
     } else {
+      if (response.status === 401) {
+        throw new UnauthorizedError("Unauthorized", 401);
+      }
       throw new Error("server returned status code " + response.status);
     }
   }
diff --git a/scm-ui-components/packages/ui-components/src/errors.js b/scm-ui-components/packages/ui-components/src/errors.js
index 420f8d6fad..9b278c7ddd 100644
--- a/scm-ui-components/packages/ui-components/src/errors.js
+++ b/scm-ui-components/packages/ui-components/src/errors.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // @flow
-type Context = {type: string, id: string}[];
+type Context = { type: string, id: string }[];
 
 export type BackendErrorContent = {
   transactionId: string,
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ export type BackendErrorContent = {
 };
 
 export class BackendError extends Error {
-
   transactionId: string;
   errorCode: string;
   url: ?string;
@@ -26,12 +25,13 @@ export class BackendError extends Error {
     this.context = content.context;
     this.statusCode = statusCode;
   }
-
 }
 
-export class UnauthorizedError extends BackendError {
-  constructor(content: BackendErrorContent, statusCode: number) {
-    super(content, "UnauthorizedError", statusCode);
+export class UnauthorizedError extends Error {
+  statusCode: number;
+  constructor(message: string, statusCode: number) {
+    super(message);
+    this.statusCode = statusCode;
   }
 }
 
@@ -40,14 +40,18 @@ export class NotFoundError extends BackendError {
     super(content, "NotFoundError", statusCode);
   }
 }
-
-export function createBackendError(content: BackendErrorContent, statusCode: number) {
+export function createBackendError(
+  content: BackendErrorContent,
+  statusCode: number
+) {
   switch (statusCode) {
-    case 401:
-      return new UnauthorizedError(content, statusCode);
     case 404:
       return new NotFoundError(content, statusCode);
     default:
       return new BackendError(content, "BackendError", statusCode);
   }
 }
+
+export function isBackendError(response: Response) {
+  return response.headers.get("Content-Type") === "application/vnd.scmm-error+json;v=2";
+}