NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Beret Sundet, Elin Moen, Olav Kolstad and Harald K. Selte, BAHR
three most important competitors, customers, and suppliers; • explanation of any efficiency gains; • information on whether the merger is subject to review by other competition authorities; • the latest version of the merger agreement with attachments; and • the parties’ latest annual reports and financial statements. The information requirements for a notification speci - fied in the Competition Act are the minimum required for a notification to be deemed as complete by the NCA. The parties may add supplemental information or elaborate beyond the minimum requirements. There is no pre-defined form for the notification nor any specified routines for submitting the notification. The notification may – eg, be submitted through email or a secure download link. It is not necessary to provide notarisations, power of attorney or similar. Note that pre-notification or submission of a draft noti - fication is not required in Norway but may be recom - mended in complex cases. In addition, according to Section 18b Competition Act, parties must submit a non-confidential version of the filing and a document summarising the rationale for any confidentiality claims. The notification will not be deemed complete before this is submitted. Filings must be submitted in Norwegian, but support - ing documents can usually be submitted in English and other Scandinavian languages. The level of detail required for simplified filings (see 3.10 Accelerated Procedure ) is lower than that described above for full filings. The NCA accepts sim - plified filings in English. 3.6 Penalties/Consequences of Incomplete or Inaccurate Notification After receiving a notification, the NCA must, according to Section 1 of the Notification Regulation, give the parties a notice within 15 working days if the notifica - tion is deemed incomplete. The NCA will then normally contact the parties and identify the information con - sidered missing. Following this, the parties may either
resubmit the notification including the missing infor - mation or supplement the notification with additional information in a submission to the NCA. No sanctions are imposed when a notification is deemed incom - plete, but the NCA’s deadlines will not run before the notification is complete. While the NCA has 15 working days to review com - pleteness of the notification, this process normally takes only a few days. The NCA does not normally confirm in writing that the notification is deemed com - plete, but the publication of receipt of notification on the NCA’s website works as an informal confirmation of completeness. Providing incorrect or incomplete information to the NCA is generally subject to an administrative fine of up to 1% of a liable party’s aggregate annual turnover, provided that the infringement was negligent or inten - tional. This also applies to the information provided in a notification. Fines are likely to be higher in cases where parties intentionally withhold or provide incor - rect information. A company was fined NOK7.5 million in 2020 for pro - viding incomplete information in a notification, but the NCA’s decision was later annulled by the CAT due to shortcomings in the NCA’s fining decision. In 2026, the NCA issued a minded-to notice (corresponding to a statement of objections) to an undertaking indicating a fine of NOK30 million for having provided mislead - ing information in a notification. In 2009, a company was also fined NOK50,000 for providing incomplete information in a notification. It is possible to impose criminal fines and/or impris - onment for a period of up to three years (or up to six years if severely aggravating circumstances exist) on individuals for grossly negligently or intentionally providing wrongful or incomplete information to the NCA. To date there have not been any cases where this power has been used. 3.7 Review Process Phase I Within 25 working days of receiving a complete noti - fication, the NCA must decide whether to close the case or further investigate the transaction (enter Phase
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