NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Kari Gimmingsrud, Stian Hultin Oddbjørnsen and Andreas Bernt, Haavind
1. Digital Economy 1.1 Key Challenges
of digital services or content against payment in consumer relations. It imposes objective and subjective requirements for conformity and equips the consumer with remedies in case of contract breach. In short, the Act can be under - stood as a consumer sales law in the digital world. New EU acts covering the digital economy that are deemed relevant for the EEA, such as the proposal for a Cyber Resilience Act, are also Norway has not yet introduced a digital services tax. Revenue derived from the provisions of digi - tal goods and services to Norwegian customers/ users is thus not subject to taxation in Norway. Digital corporations have to conduct business in Norway (personnel or servers in Norway) in order to be subject to corporate income tax on profit allocated to the business activity in Norway. Nor - wegian tax law prescribes that a non-resident corporation is taxable in Norway on income from business activity that it has performed or partici - pated in, and that is carried on in or managed from Norway. VAT VAT is payable on digital services and goods sold within the VAT area (the Norwegian mainland and the entire area within Norway's territorial limits, but not Svalbard, Jan Mayen or the Norwegian dependencies), at a rate of 25%. Imports VAT is also payable on services capable of deliv - ery from a remote location that are purchased outside the VAT area when the recipient is domi - ciled in the VAT area and the service is taxable likely to be implemented in Norway. 1.2 Digital Economy Taxation Tax (CIT)
Norwegian legislation is, to a large extent, tech - nology-neutral, but Norway does not have spe - cific laws or regulations applicable to the digital economy in general. Norway is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), and EU regula - tions such as the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act and the Platform Work Directive will apply when implemented into Norwegian law. A general challenge of the digital economy is how to apply traditional legal concepts from the “analogue world” to digital activity. Specifically, employment protection, tax regulations and criminal regulations have proved challenging to apply in the normal context of jurisdiction, due to the geographically borderless nature of the digital economy, which needs to be reconciled with strict requirements for laws to be clear and predictable in order to be enforceable within the areas of employment, tax and criminal law in Norway. Cryptocurrency has proved to be another legal challenge. Norwegian banks have long been wary of accepting deposits made in cryptocur - rency, as the normal “Know Your Customer” requirements and anti-money laundering pro - cedures can be difficult to enforce and apply in relation to customers using cryptocurrency. Documenting the absence of money laundering or similar crimes in past crypto transactions can be almost impossible, and no common code or practice has yet been applied across banks in Norway. The Norwegian Act on Digital Content and Ser - vices entered into force in October 2023 and implements EU Directive 2019/770. The Act applies to agreements concerning the supply
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