NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Elin Moen, Arne Torsten Andersen, Helge Stemshaug and Beret Sundet, BAHR
Phase II Within 70 working days of receiving a com - plete notification, the NCA must either close the case by issuing a clearance decision, accept proposed remedies or issue a draft prohibition decision (similar to a Statement 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 work - ing 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 prohibi - tion decision. A further 15 working-day exten - sion 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 notifica - tion if no extensions occur, or 145 working days if all possible extensions are used. Please note that the NCA’s deadlines may be suspended if the parties to the transaction fail to respond to requests for information within the timeframe set by the NCA (see 3.10 Requests for Information During the Review Process ). While this rarely occurs in practice, the NCA has recently indicated its willingness to stop the clock in such situations.
intentionally withhold or provide incorrect infor - mation. A company was fined NOK7.5 million in 2020 for providing incomplete information in a notifica - tion, but the NCA’s decision was later annulled by the CAT due to shortcomings in the NCA’s fin - ing decision. 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 imprisonment for a period of up to three years (or up to six years if severely aggravating cir - cumstances 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. 3.8 Review Process Phase I Within 25 working days of receiving a complete notification, the NCA must decide whether to close the case or further investigate the trans - action (enter Phase 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 12 working days. The 25 working-day deadline can be extend - ed by ten working days if the notifying parties propose remedies before working day 20. This extension does not affect the Phase II deadline.
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