NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Elisabeth Roscher, Tine Vigmostad, Geir Sviggum and Kristin Nordland Brattli, Wikborg Rein Advokatfirma AS
of awareness, and integration with daily opera- tions and tools.
• the Environment Agency ( Miljødirektoratet ), responsible for environmental laws and regu- lations; • the Financial Supervisory Authority ( Finanstil- synet ), responsible for banking, insurance and other areas of financial market regulations; and • the Tax Administration ( Skatteetaten ), respon- sible for tax matters. 5.3 Co-Operating With Enforcement Authorities The frequency and nature of co-operation with enforcement authorities and regulators vary based on the purpose of the contact and applicable laws. In some cases, companies are obliged by law to immediately report certain types of crises to responsible authorities – for instance, in the case of a data privacy breach or a suspicious activities report. In other cases, an internal investigation would often be conducted before informing the authorities. 5.4 Litigation Risk Assessment A litigation risk assessment would normally be conducted by external legal counsel – for example, a thorough evaluation of legal risks and liabilities may be needed in order to assess potential settlement options. 5.5 Involvement of Lawyers It is common to engage external legal counsel with experience in managing crisis situations. Some companies do have in-house crisis man- agement teams (mainly larger companies). The criteria used to select external legal coun- sel usually include relevant expertise and expe- rience within the legal field the crisis relates to, as well as experience with crisis management in general.
5. Legal Strategy 5.1 Legal Challenges
The most critical challenge for a company faced with a crisis is that a lot of important actions must be taken immediately, and a company with no prior experience of a crisis would not know how to prioritise each step in such a context. Therefore, having a decent contingency plan or incident response plan would significantly streamline the process in a crisis situation, and would also reduce the risk of actions being taken that adversely affect the company. 5.2 Dealing With Enforcement Authorities Relevant enforcement authorities that compa- nies and management must deal with in relation to potential legal liability include: • the Police Force ( Politiet ), responsible for criminal investigations and enforcement; • the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmen- tal Crime (Økokrim), responsible for criminal investigations and enforcement related to economic and environmental crime; • the Labour Inspection Authority ( Arbeidstil- synet ), responsible for labour rights, health and safety; • the Data Protection Authority ( Datatilsynet ), responsible for data protection and privacy; • the Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB), responsible for civil protection and emergen- cy preparedness; • the Competition Authority ( Konkurransetilsyn- et ), responsible for competition law enforce- ment;
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