NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Kari Gimmingsrud, Stian Hultin Oddbjørnsen and Andreas Bernt, Haavind
6.3 Emerging Technologies Norway is among the most digitalised countries in the world, with extensive use of technology across industries and everyday life. Norway’s 5G deployment is rapidly expanding, with major cit - ies and rural areas increasingly covered by high- speed networks, supporting enhanced connec - tivity across the country. The regulatory framework for the integration of these emerging technologies consists of Norwe - gian implementations of EU initiatives within the TMT field, as well as some country-specific leg - islation (see 6.1 Scope of Regulation and Pre- Marketing Requirements and 6.2 Net Neutrality Regulations ). 7. Challenges with Technology Agreements 7.1 Legal Framework Challenges IT Agreements Norway does not have general legislation for IT service agreements, although the country boasts no fewer than three families of IT stand - ard contract templates: Statens Standardavtaler (SSA), IKT Norge (IT industry organisation) and Dataforeningen (Computer Association). SSA is the most widely used template, even though it was originally intended for government enti - ties. Even two private parties often use the tem - plates. Standard terms and conditions heavily influenced by big international IT companies are also often applied by Norwegian IT suppliers. The relevant legislation to consider is the Norwe - gian Contracts Act and the non-statutory prin - ciples applicable to all contracts. Compared to other jurisdictions, Norway may be considered a “hybrid” between the common law and the civil law tradition. The Contracts Act contains provi -
Other rules apply to Svalbard and Antarctica, including for reception. The use of radio equipment for satellite com - munication, for ordinary commercial services in Norway, is harmonised with the rest of Europe. Permission for such use is granted through a general licence for the use of frequencies (the Free Use Regulations), and the use of such equipment therefore requires no further frequen - cy licence from Nkom. 6.2 Net Neutrality Regulations The right to an open internet connection is enshrined in law in Norway. The Electronic Com - munications Act states that providers of elec - tronic communications networks or services may not impose requirements or general contractual terms and conditions for access to or use of networks or services that discriminate against end users on the basis of citizenship, place of residence or place of establishment, unless such discrimination is objectively justified. Section 1-11 of the Electronic Communica - tions Regulation states that Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council on net neutrality applies as a Nor - wegian regulation. In principle, providers are not allowed to block or throttle traffic from specific applications, such as streaming or file sharing. There are some excep - tions to this, which mean that the provider can, for example, intervene due to security considera - tions or measures imposed by law or the courts. Examples include the blocking of domain names for copyright infringement or domain names that are on the police's list of sexual abuse material.
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