NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Beret Sundet, Elin Moen, Olav Kolstad and Harald K. Selte, BAHR
When submitting a formal notification, the notifying party must submit a non-confidential version of the filing at the same time, by highlighting all confidential information in their filing. They must also provide a document summarising the legal arguments for any confidentiality claims. The NCA will consider the fil - ing incomplete if the confidentiality claims are insuf - ficiently reasoned, which normally will impact upon timing of the review. Third parties, as well as any member of the public, have the right to access the NCA’s file and non-con - fidential versions of all case documents during and after the review (see 7.1 Third-Party Rights ). 7.4 Co-Operation With Other Jurisdictions Nordic Co-Operation Agreement There is a ratified agreement on co-operation in com - petition cases between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Under this agreement, the com - petition authority of a signatory state may request the national competition authorities of the other signatory states to collect information on its behalf, including through inspections (dawn raids). For example, the NCA can ask the Swedish Competition Authority to collect information on its behalf. Confidential informa - tion may be shared between the national competition authorities unhindered for the purpose of applying antitrust rules and merger control, without obtaining permission from the undertakings involved. ECN As a non-member state, Norway is not a member of the European Competition Network (ECN) but takes part in the co-operation as an observer state. Norway also takes part in the co-operation in merger cases, and the NCA frequently informs other competition authorities about incoming merger cases through the ECN network. The NCA may also represent Norway in the Advisory Committee for merger cases which the European Commission must consult before adopting certain decisions in merger cases. Case-to-Case Co-Operation In cases with potential cross-border effects, the NCA from time to time requests the parties to approve reciprocal sharing of relevant confidential information between the competition authorities involved. This
may – eg, be relevant for cases related to the oil and gas industry, where transactions may affect both Nor - way and the UK, as many players have a presence on both sides of the North Sea. Policy The NCA represents Norway in several international organisations such as ICN (International Competition Network), ECA (European Competition Authorities) and the OECD Competition Committee and the work - ing groups under this committee. 8. Appeals and Judicial Review 8.1 Access to Appeal and Judicial Review The notifying parties to an intervention decision (pro - hibitions or conditional clearance) can appeal the decision to the CAT. The parties may further bring the CAT’s decision before the Gulating Court of Appeals in Bergen, by way of a civil lawsuit. The NCA is not able to appeal the CAT’s decisions in merger cases. The appeal court decision may be appealed to the Supreme Court by both the parties involved and the NCA. Other affected parties with a legal interest (which, depending on the case, could be – eg, the seller in a prohibited transaction or parties potentially directly harmed by the conditions in a conditional clearance case) can appeal an intervention decision to the CAT and bring the CAT’s decision for judicial review. A decision to close a case without intervention cannot be appealed, neither by involved parties nor by third parties. The CAT and the courts may take a full review of an appealed prohibition case and adopt a new decision, uphold the prohibition or repeal the NCA decision. In appeals over conditional clearance decisions, the CAT may either uphold or repeal the NCA decision. In case of the repeal of a conditional decision, the NCA may adopt a new decision within 45 working days unless the CAT had found that the conditions for intervention were not fulfilled, where the CAT’s clearance decision is final.
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