A Guide To ICT Contracts In Norway

• Published date: 04 September 2023
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Contracts and Commercial Law, IT and Internet
• Law Firm: Advokatfirmaet Hjort DA
• Author: Eivind Grims' Moe

Norway has a well-developed contractual and regulatory framework for ICT procurements and contracts are commonly based on a model agreements from one of the three "families" of model agreements in Norway. This article is intended as a brief guide for foreign companies that are involved in ICT procurements in Norway.

Norwegian law is generally based on freedom of contract, and contracts generally do not require any particular form to be valid, but. it is clearly most common to enter into written contracts in transactions between businesses. In contracts between professional parties, the freedom of contract is generally only limited to situations that are roughly equivalent to the common law concept of contractual frustration.

Norway is a part of the European Economic Area ("the EEA"), and EU's law on public procurement has been incorporated into Norwegian law. Additionally, contracts that are below the EU thresholds, but which exceed a nationally defined threshold, are subject so certain requirements under Norwegian procurement legislation.

Norwegian model agreements

General

There are three main "families" of contracts available in Norway:

• SSA -The Norwegian Government's Standard Terms and Conditions for IT Procurement
• PS - From the Norwegian Computer Society, Norway's largest network for IT professionals
• IKT-Norge - From ICT Norway, the interest group for the Norwegian ICT industry

The SSA contracts

The "SSA" family of contracts are authored and issued by The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management. They are by far the most commonly used contracts for IT-related procurements in Norway, not only because the public sector is a large purchaser of IT-related services, but also because they are freely available and generally well-known. The agreements are tailored for public procurements, however they are also used in the private sector with or without modifications.

There are several different contracts available for different purposes, including cloud services projects (SSA-SKY), customization and development projects (SSA-T), maintenance services (SSA-V), outsourcing services (SSA-D), consultancy services (SSA-B) and standard hardware/software procurements (SSA-K).

The SSA family of contracts have been drafted by the Norwegian government for use by public entities, who mainly act as purchasers, and are generally deemed as customer friendly. Recently, there has been an increased involvement of the industry in the drafting and negotiation of...