Insight

The Court of Appeal’s judgment in the climate case against the State requires the PDO approvals for three major North Sea fields to be reconsidered due to inadequate climate impact assessments. Although the developments are not temporarily suspended, the judgment clarifies key requirements for the assessment of combustion emissions under Norwegian law, EEA law and the ECHR.

The gender pay gap in the EU remains at around 13–14%, with little progress over the past decade. In Norway, the gap is approximately 12%, and the differences become even more pronounced when looking at overall income and pension accrual. According to the EU, a large reason for this persistence is the lack of pay transparency: without insight into how salaries are determined, employees cannot easily detect or challenge unfair differences.

The European Commission published its new guidelines for horizontal cooperation agreements on 1 June, which means that existing practice and guidelines from the Norwegian Competition Authority (“the NCA”) for tender and project cooperation must be changed.

Faced with more complex threats to national security, increased interest to invest in Norwegian companies and the war in Ukraine, the Norwegian Parliament has adopted new rules strengthening the investment screening regime.

The Norwegian government today introduced a proposal to subject aquaculture to a new source rent taxation regime. Until now, the industry has only formed part of the ordinary corporate income tax regime (in addition to a certain minor special duties).

The Government announced on a press conference 31 August 2021 that they would propose amendments to the petroleum tax act. The Ministry of Finance then 3 September 2021 issued a public consultation paper where it is proposed that the rules on depreciation and tax-free income in the special tax for petroleum from 2022 should be replaced by immediate expense recognition of investments (cash flow tax – direct tax deduction). The Ministry of Finance emphasized that the proposed amendment is similar to amendment that entered into force for hydroelectric power with effect for investments made from 2021.

The Norwegian government has decided to instruct the regulatory authority NVE to pick up again the handling of new license applications for onshore wind farms. Licensing for new onshore wind farms has been on hold for approximately three years, in the wake of widespread local opposition to new wind projects.

Norway’s three leading grocery chains – NorgesGruppen, Coop and Rema 1000 – for violating Section 10 of the Norwegian Competition Act (mirroring Article 101 TFEU) by cooperating on the use of so-called price hunters to systematically check prices in competitors' stores. According to the NCA, this constitutes illegal information exchange, which has had a restrictive effect on competition.

On Wednesday 9 February, four Norwegian ministers presented the government’s plans for the next steps in the development of offshore wind on the NCS. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labour) lead the presentation, held in Oslo Harbour. A public consultation letter was published later the same day.

The Government announced on a press conference 31 August 2021 that they would propose amendments to the petroleum tax act. The Ministry of Finance has now issued a public consultation paper where it is proposed that the rules on depreciation and tax-free income in the special tax for petroleum from 2022 should be replaced by immediate expense recognition of investments (cash flow tax – direct tax deduction). The Ministry of Finance emphasizes that the proposed amendment is similar to amendment that entered into force for hydroelectric power with effect for investments made from 2021.

On Friday 11 June 2021, the Norwegian Government approved a long-awaited white paper. The document is titled “Putting Energy to Work”,  and contains the most recent and updated policy plans for the energy sector in Norway. Among the initiatives is a novel “Roadmap for hydrogen”.

Svein Terje Tveit and Torjus Midthun Otterbech have published the Norwegian chapter in State aid 2021: Lexology Getting the Deal Through.