GDPR Lawyers in Norway

Even though Norway is not a member of the European Union (EU), the country is a member state of European Economic Area (EEA) and thus, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has an effect on this jurisdiction as, for example, Norwegian based businesses that have a presence on the EU’s market will have to adopt specific measures for the protection of data provided by clients, users, employees or business partners. 

Norway is required to impose GDPR measures as established under the Article 7 (a) of the Main Agreement of the EEA, which has led to the creation of the Personal Data Act implementing GDPR in Norway, which makes the GDPR applicable in full as Norwegian law. Our team of GDPR lawyers in Norway can offer in-depth legal assistance on the main regulations that are applicable here. 

Main data amendments in Norway  

The main legal act that protects data in Norway is the Personal Data Act, which has been amended to comply with a set of the GDPR rules imposed by the EU. The previous Personal Data Act of 2000 was repealed in 2018, but companies operating here should know that the following are in accordance with the EU’s law on the matter: 

• • companies are not allowed to gather sensitive data from clients, unless one of the exceptions in Article 9 GDPR applies (the former licensing by the Data Inspectorate was abolished in 2018);
• • ID numbers belonging to natural persons may only be requested by companies and organizations only in the situation in which there are reasonable legal grounds to do so;
• • consent – the minimum age established by Norway (as well as by other Scandinavian countries) to give consent on the collection of data of a natural person is 13 years old;
• • employee’s e-mails – Norway has specific regulations (in force since 2018) on when an employer may access the employee’s e-mails. 

Penalties for the breach of data protection laws in Norway  

Following the implementation of a part of the GDPR laws in Norway, the country has removed its previous penalties regarding the breach of data legislation, being in line with the EU regulations on the matter, which can be detailed by our team of Norwegian GDPR lawyers. 

It is important to know that Norway will apply administrative fees in amount of up to 4% of a company’s annual global turnover or EU 20 million and businessmen are invited to contact our GDPR lawyers in Norway for legal representation and counselling regarding the measures that have to be imposed in order to avoid any penalties deriving from this new law.