The rules on exit tax on shares and certain other securities mean that private individuals who move from Norway and becomes resident for tax purposes in another country must pay tax for latent profits on shares etc., as if the shares had been sold the day before emigration. Change in law is now in force As the rules have been until 28 November 2022, the exit tax ceased to apply if the shares were not realized five years after emigration ...
On 15 March 2020, the Norwegian government presented their proposal for new loan and guarantee schemes in the total amount of NOK 100 billion, to strengthen Norwegian companies' liquidity during the Covid-19 outbreak. The proposal includes: A NOK 50 billion funding which will be applied to issue guarantees in favour of banks as security for new loans granted to small and medium sized companies ...
One of the proposals set out in the Green Paper concerns an investment obligation for streaming services. According to the proposal, streaming services are required to either invest directly in Norwegian films and series, or, if the services do not invest sufficiently in Norwegian content, contribute to the financing of such productions through financial contributions to the Norwegian Film Fund ...
On Wednesday 18 March 2020, the Norwegian Government put forward a bill which will give the Government vast authorization to fight Covid-19 and its consequences for the society. Today, 21 March 2020, a more narrow Corona act was adopted by the Norwegian Parliament. Read more about the initial proposal. After the initial critical voices, the Parliament chose to initiate a speedily hearing, where it invited i.a ...
The Norwegian Supreme Court delivered its judgement in the so-called Fosen-Linjen case 27 September 2019 (HR-2019-1801-A). The Fosen-Linjen case has been much debated the latter years, inter alia because it has been the only Norwegian case to have been subject to two EFTA Court referrals, cf. the decisions of the EFTA Court in cases E-16/16 (Fosen-Linjen I) and E-7/18 (Fosen-Linjen II) ...
The underlying dispute relates to the MV «Cheshire» incident in 2017, where a cargo of fertiliser was subject to a major decomposition incident. The fertiliser that was carried on the vessel was damaged, and the vessel was declared a total loss. In February 2020, Oslo District Court ruled in favour of the cargo interests, holding the carriers liable for the cargo loss (approx. USD 25 million) (TOSLO-2017-180657-1). The carriers have appealed the judgement ...
The underlying dispute relates to the MV «Cheshire»-incident in 2017, where a cargo of fertiliser was subject to a major decomposition incident. The fertiliser that was carried on the vessel was damaged, and the vessel was declared a total loss. In February 2020, Oslo District Court ruled in favour of the cargo interests, holding the carriers liable for the cargo loss (approx. USD 25 million) (TOSLO-2017-180657-1). The carriers have appealed the judgement ...
The Association’s claim is a torts claim on behalf of approximately 400.000 residential alarm customers against the two major Norwegian alarm companies. Sector and Verisure colluded over eight years and were fined NOK 1,2 billion (120 million euros) by the Norwegian Competition Authority. The question that the Supreme Court shall decide is whether third-party financing in opt-out class actions can be permitted under the Norwegian Dispute Act ...
On 7 August 2019 a new UN convention was signed in Singapore by 46 countries, the "UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation", also known as the Singapore Convention. The Singapore Convention applies to international settlement agreements resulting from mediation and aims to be an instrument for international trade to facilitate and promote mediation as an alternative method of resolving trade disputes ...
The case concerned the use of competitor’s brands in key word advertising on Google. Ikano Bank and two banks in the consumer loan market demanded that Bank Norwegian’s advertising on the Internet using the banks’ characteristics as paid keywords should be prohibited pursuant to the general clause of the Marketing Act. The principle character of the case was demonstrated by the support from Virke, The Federation of Norwegian Enterprise, in favor of the three claimants ...
We have been involved in several noteworthy trademark and unfair competition disputes throughout 2021. In particular, we prevailed before the Supreme Court in a highly cited unfair competition and trademark dispute between Bank Norwegian AS and the three competing banks Komplett Bank, Ikano Bank, and BRA-bank in the «Google Ads» matter ...
On appeal, the trademark infringement was no longer in dispute. Still, the decision has a fundamental interest in the intellectual property legal space. The judgement deals with principal issues related to compensation claims for trademark infringement where the infringement and alleged damage merely relates to a subpart of the infringer’s ads and turnover. Norgesgjerde and Vindex (the original plaintiffs) claimed total damages and compensation in excess of NOK 10 million ...
The material issue of the case, in which the procedural question arose, was whether two decisions by the Alver Municipality regarding property tax for «Mongstad kraftvarmeverk» and «Mongstad raffineri» owned by Equinor were lawful. In order to value the properties, the municipality had engaged an appraiser. Now, before the case is to be decided by the High Court, the parties disagreed about whether the appraiser should be considered an expert witness or not ...
At Christmas, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) consisting of 1256 pages was finally agreed between the EU and the UK. Crucially, the Agreement is between the EU and UK only and not the EU and its member states and the UK. The TCA establishes a free trade area for goods and services, in accordance with the WTO law. Both sides can apply trade remedies as is usual for free trade agreements such as on condition anti-dumping duties, anti-subsidy duties, and economic safeguards ...
At Christmas, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) consisting of 1256 pages was finally agreed between the EU and the UK. Crucially, the Agreement is between the EU and UK only and not the EU and its member states and the UK. The TCA establishes a free trade area for goods and services, in accordance with the WTO law. Both sides can apply trade remedies as is usual for free trade agreements such as on condition anti-dumping duties, anti-subsidy duties, and economic safeguards ...
Introduction The UN Convention on International Bills of Exchange and International Promissory Notes (1988) and the Convention Providing a Uniform Law for Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes (1930), on which legislation throughout the world is modelled, assert the same principle. The assignment of funds is thus rejected as the legal principle underlying the transfer of funds ...
Any person will be given the right to demand information from enterprises affected by the Transparency Act It follows from the Transparency Act, Section 6, first paragraph, that any person has the right to information from an enterprise regarding how the enterprise addresses actual and potential adverse impacts according to the Section 4 of the Act ...
The Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries has adopted a new regulation exempting the transport sector from the prohibition in Section 10 of the Norwegian Competition Act; cf. FOR-2020-03-18-340. Section 10 is the national equivalent to Article 101 TFEU and 53 EEA. The new rules are set to apply for three months but may be prolonged or shortened, depending on how the ongoing covid-19 pandemic evolves ...
An increased number of corporate transactions and mergers have been observed in the oil and gas sector on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in recent years. Several oil majors and traditional utilities and downstream companies have reduced their presence and, to some extent, been replaced by smaller companies, including start-ups backed by private equity ...
During the US President’s visit to Brussels, President Biden and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated on Friday 25 March that the parties have agreed on the main principles of a new agreement on the protection of personal data transferred to the United States. While a concrete agreement text has not yet been published, the US White House has published a Fact Sheet explaining the key principles to be expected in the final framework ...
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority has notified Stortinget of an infringement fine of two million kroner and imposed an infringement fine of four million kroner on Østre Toten municipality. In both cases, the Authority emphasizes that it is a clear management responsibility to secure the business against such attacks, and that two-factor authentication, awareness-raising and an appropriate risk and vulnerability analysis are key measures ...
According to the recent insurance broker's Transactional Risk Insurance Claims Study1, the number of W&I claims have increased by 293% between 2016 and 2018 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (the EMEA-region). One explanation is of course the triple increase W&I policies issued over the same period. The W&I market have become more mature than what it was just some few years back ...
However, Fintech is actually just a new term for an old concept that dates back to ancient times. A case in point is the invention of paper in China in the 7th century, a major technological development that paved the way for paper currency, and eventually fiat currency. The development of the payment card systems in the 1950s (e.g ...
1. Introduction Equinor’s pioneering «Hywind Tampen» project, set to become the biggest floating wind farm in the world and scheduled to commence construction in late 2022, will mark the first foray into offshore wind production in Norway. Further, the areas «Utsira Nord» (floating turbines) and «Sørlige Nordsjø II» (bottom fixed turbines), both in the North Sea, have as from 1 January 2021 been opened for development ...
The Supreme Court has decided several cases concerning the Civil Procedure Act this autumn. We would like to start by mentioning HR-2022-1503-U, which concerned the difference between an ordinary witness and an expert witness. Two decisions concerning recusal are also noteworthy: HR-2022-1959-A and HR-2022-1799-U. The question in the first case was whether a judge had to recuse himself because his textbook expressed an opinion about the legal issue in the case ...
