New, complicated rules
According to the - fairly new - Price Information Regulations section 9a, information about the pre-price must be provided when the price of a product is marketed as reduced. The pre-price must be "the lowest price that the trader has used for at least 30 days before the marketing started". It is this 30-day limit that has led to online retailers often increasing their prices in the period before, for example, Black Friday, so that they can legally use a pre-price that is as high as possible when the discounts are advertised.
The regulations have caused a lot of headaches, especially for online retailers, and we have been waiting a long time for the Norwegian Consumer Authority («NCA») to enforce the regulations. With the new rules also came new, deterrent sanction rules that mean that the Consumer Authority can impose fines of up to four percent of annual revenue or up to NOK 25 million (whichever is higher).
The background to the decision
The NCA carried out a major action where they supervised online retailers in November and December 2024.
In the case of the online store in question, the NCA checked random samples of 20 products through three different, short-term sales campaigns, without finding a single case of using the correct pre-price (i.e. the lowest price that had been used in the previous 30-day period).
The decision contains specific examples of products that, for example, have been advertised with a 35% discount based on a pre-price of NOK 1199, while the online store had actually offered the product at NOK 779 during the previous 30-day period. From the decision:
Calculation of the fine
The NCA makes a detailed assessment of what would be a reasonable and proportionate fine. It is pointed out that general preventive considerations indicate that "a high fine is appropriate and necessary", before deciding on a fee of NOK 2,000,000, which thus amounted to 1.8 % of the company’s annual revenue based on the latest available accounting figures. This is despite the fact that the Consumer Authority explicitly points out that the upper ceiling in this case would have been NOK 25,000,000.
The decision (which can be read in full – in Norwegian - here) can be appealed to the Market Council and is therefore not final.
A signal for increased enforcement?
There is every reason to believe that the NCA will continue to crack down on illegal price marketing now that businesses have had some time to familiarize themselves with the new regulations. In the decision in question, the NCA also expresses some frustration that the regulations are apparently not taken seriously enough before the NCA makes contact:
[It is] our impression that many traders still do not prioritize familiarizing themselves with the rules that apply to sales marketing and other consumer protection rules, and thus do not organize their business in line with the regulations. In order for us to be able to enforce the regulations effectively, it is necessary that traders on their own initiative, to a much greater extent than today, organize their business in line with the regulations.
We believe that the NCA will continue to use extensive fines to ensure that the regulations are complied with to a greater extent.
