Electronic Signature Laws & Regulations - Norway

Overview

In general, use of electronic signatures and certificate-based digital signatures is common in Norway and increasing. Although Norway is not a European Union (EU) Member State, it has close ties with the EU as part of the agreements around membership of the European Economic Area, and its membership of the European Free Trade Association.

As a result, Regulation No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS) is fully incorporated into Norwegian Law, through the Act on electronic trust services (LOV-2018-06-15-44).

There are also additional Norwegian Regulations (e.g. FOR-2019-11-21-1577) that transpose the European Commission’s implementing acts under the eIDAS Regulation. For more information on eIDAS, please read the Electronic Signature Laws & Regulations in the EU.

 

Legal effect and admissibility.

In Norway, the principle of freedom of contract entails that all types of signatures may in principle be valid and enforceable (unless otherwise specified by the parties). Further, pursuant to the civil procedural principle of freedom of evidence, all documents and signatures may be admitted as evidence regardless of form and does not limit the judge's ability to freely assess the evidence.

The preparatory works to LOV-2018-06-15-44 states that contrary to the situation in many other European jurisdictions, the eIDAS Regulation’s clause on the applicability of electronic signatures does not entail any changes to the status quo in Norwegian law.
The presumption of integrity of a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) in theory may affect Norway’s established principle of freedom of evidence. However, this possible conflict is mitigated by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade stating that in practice this presumption should not differ significantly when a QES is assessed under the principle of freedom of evidence. The Ministry also noted that there are no limitations on providing counter evidence to the validity of a QES as well.

In Norway, there are no current legal requirements to use specific authorized identity or trust services for signatures. However, in alignment with eIDAS, Norway established, maintains and publishes a trusted list of Qualified Trust Service Providers (QTSPs) and the qualified trust services provided by them. The Norwegian list of QTSP providers is available at: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/tl-browser/#/tl/NO.


Special Considerations

Transacting with public sector entities

There are few legal requirements or restrictions for using electronic signatures when interacting with government entities in Norway. If submitting electronically signed documents that relate to real property, the signature must be a QES. And, according to the Norwegian regulation on public procurements, there is a legal requirement to implement electronic submission of public tenders. In connection with a public tender, there may also be a condition included to apply a specific standard of electronic signature, such as an Advanced electronic signature.

 

Use cases that generally require a traditional signature

In Norway, certain documents must be signed with a traditional handwritten signature to be considered valid. Examples of these documents include:

  1. Testaments must be signed on paper in the physical presence of two witnesses;
  2. Springing Power of Attorney, such as where a designated person is given the authority to make economic decision on the other person’s behalf (as an alternative to a government-appointed guardianship);
  3. Pre-marital and marriage agreements;
  4. Annual reports in private and public limited liability companies; and
  5. Declaration of Debt which can be enforced directly, such as if issued by a non-financial institution.
Note:

Disclaimer: Information on this page is intended to help businesses understand the legal framework of electronic signatures. However, Adobe cannot provide legal advice. You should consult an attorney regarding your specific legal questions. Laws and regulations change frequently, and this information may not be current or accurate. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Adobe provides this material on an "as-is" basis. Adobe disclaims and makes no representation or warranty of any kind with respect to this material, express, implied or statutory, including representations, guarantees or warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or accuracy.

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