NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Beret Sundet, Elin Moen, Olav Kolstad and Harald K. Selte, BAHR
II). If the NCA decides to enter Phase II, it will provide a brief statement outlining its preliminary view of the case. A transaction is automatically cleared if no such statement is issued within the 25-day deadline. Note that uncomplicated transactions often are closed well before the 25-day deadline, with an average handling time of cases closed in Phase I of 11 working days (last ten years). The 25 working-day deadline can be extended by ten working days if the notifying parties propose remedies before working day 20. This extension does not affect the Phase II deadline. Phase II Within 70 working days of receiving a complete notifi - cation, the NCA must either close the case by issuing a clearance decision, accept proposed remedies or issue a draft prohibition decision (similar to a State - ment of Objections under the EUMR). If remedies are proposed by the notifying parties after working day 55, the 70-day deadline is adjusted to ensure the NCA has at least 15 working days to consider the remedy proposal, but not by more than 15 working days in total. Consequently, the latest the NCA can make its decision is 85 working days after receiving a complete notification. Following a draft prohibition decision, the parties have 15 working days to submit their comments. The NCA must then issue its final decision within 15 working days of receiving the parties’ comments. This final decision deadline can be extended by an additional 15 working days if the parties propose remedies after the draft prohibition decision. A further 15 working- day extension is possible if requested or accepted by the notifying party/parties. The maximum review time is thus 100 working days from submission of the complete notification if no extensions occur, or 145 working days if all possible extensions are used. Please note that the NCA’s deadlines may be sus - pended if the parties to the transaction fail to respond completely to requests for information within the time - frame set by the NCA (see 3.9 Requests for Informa- tion During the Review Process ). If the response to
an RFI does not include an indication of confidential information and a reasoned statement on why the indicated information is exempted from public dis - closure, it is not considered complete. While clock stops previously occurred very rarely, the NCA has in recent years been using the possibility to stop the clock more frequently. 3.8 Pre-Notification Discussions With Authorities Pre-notification is generally not required in Norway and does not typically occur for simple cases. In contrast, pre-notification is normal (though not strictly neces - sary) for complex cases – eg, cases with potential competition concerns or complicated market struc - tures or dynamics. The parties are not required to provide a draft noti - fication to the NCA ahead of filing but may submit a draft as part of any pre-notification discussions with the NCA. Pre-notification discussions are held in full confiden - tiality until notification is submitted unless the trans - action is otherwise known to the public, the parties consent to the NCA reaching out to third parties, or in other exceptional circumstances. 3.9 Requests for Information During the Review Process The NCA has the power to request information at any stage during the review process, also during a possible pre-notification process. In simpler cases, requests are unusual, and are normally limited to short clarifications on specific points. In contrast, several extensive requests for information and data should be expected in complicated cases. In such cases, requests for internal documents are also usual. Such requests are normally comprehensive and cover all types of internal documents from e-mails to board documents that contain information potentially rel - evant for the case – eg, information related to the affected markets, competition, the notified transac - tion, etc. The NCA typically sends its requests in writing and provides a deadline. A response to an RFI is not con - sidered complete unless confidential information in
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