Fundamental principles

The fundamental principles are five requirements for how the contracting authority must act in a procurement: competition (konkurranse), equal treatment (likebehandling), predictability (forutberegnelighet), verifiability (etterprøvbarhet) and proportionality (forholdsmessighet). They are set out in § 4 of the Public Procurement Act (anskaffelsesloven) and apply to all procurements the Act covers, that is, purchases with an estimated value at or above NOK 500,000 excluding VAT, with the exceptions in § 2 of the Act, both when the competition is advertised and when it is not. Below NOK 500,000 the procurement rules do not apply, and so neither do the principles in § 4, but if the contract is of certain cross-border interest, the EEA Agreement's own requirements of equal treatment and transparency may still apply. DFØ (the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management) writes that the contracting authority should follow them there too, and a buyer that is a public administrative body (forvaltningsorgan) must still follow the Public Administration Act (forvaltningsloven) and the requirement of sound administrative procedure (forsvarlig saksbehandling). The § references on this page are to the Public Procurement Regulations (anskaffelsesforskriften) unless the Act is named.

According to DFØ, the principles have two functions. They can create rights and duties on their own, also where the Regulations have no rule, and they are used to interpret the rules that exist. What they require depends on the competition, and in particular on what the contracting authority has told the market; DFØ refers to KOFA (the Complaints Board for Public Procurement) putting it that way in case 2011/328. From NOK 500,000 to NOK 1.3 million, only the Act and Part I of the Regulations apply, and Part I has neither a duty to advertise nor procedural rules. There, it is the principles, together with the general rules in Part I, that set the framework for the competition.

The repeal of § 4 of the Act has been adopted but has not entered into force, so the section still applies as at 14 October 2026, when this was last checked; see the page on the Public Procurement Act. For health and social services at or above NOK 8.7 million (Part IV), the requirement that suppliers are treated equally and are told what the contracting authority will give weight to is also set out in the Regulations themselves (§ 30-1 (2)). The Act lists exceptions for utilities and concession contracts in § 2 (3) of the Act, and § 4 of the Act is not among them. DFØ writes that these contracts follow the Utilities Regulations (forsyningsforskriften) or the Concession Contracts Regulations (konsesjonskontraktforskriften) in addition to the Act. On the wording of the Act, the principles therefore apply to them too.

Competition. The main rule is that contracts must be put out to competition, both above and below the thresholds (DFØ). From NOK 1.3 million this is as a rule done by advertising on Doffin, Norway's national database for procurement notices; for health and social services, the duty to advertise applies only from NOK 8.7 million (§ 5-1, § 8-17 and § 30-5). Between NOK 500,000 and NOK 1.3 million, according to DFØ, the contract must be made known to a reasonable number of suppliers, for example by a voluntary notice or by the contracting authority asking several suppliers for tenders; DFØ refers to KOFA case 2007/79. Awarding directly without competition is an exception, for example when only one supplier can deliver. For you, this means you can react when a contracting authority awards a contract to one supplier without making it known to others, and there are no objective grounds for skipping the competition.

Equal treatment. All suppliers must have equal opportunities. The contracting authority cannot favour Norwegian or local suppliers without objective grounds, must give everyone the same information at the same time, and must assess like circumstances alike. According to DFØ, KOFA held in case 2016/14 that it was a breach of equal treatment to mark down one supplier for a floor plan when the selected supplier had a similar plan and was not marked down. In case 2023/346, according to DFØ, KOFA found that the contracting authority should have levelled out the advantage the incumbent supplier had from knowing the delivery locations and delivery frequency, but the board made clear that not every advantage must be levelled out.

Predictability. You should be able to know in advance what is being bought, how the competition will be run, what requirements apply, what decides the choice, and how large and how long the contract is. KOFA has held that the tender documents must be clear to a reasonably diligent tenderer, and that the contracting authority must keep to what it has stated (DFØ). According to DFØ, KOFA found a breach in case 2014/95 when differences in one product were given disproportionately great weight in the evaluation, without the tender documents having made clear how important the product was.

Verifiability. The contracting authority must document its assessments and decisions in writing, so that you and a complaints body can check them afterwards. The duty to keep a procurement record (Regulations § 7-1), the duty to give reasons for the choice of supplier (from NOK 1.3 million, § 10-1, § 25-1 and § 30-8) and the contract award notice (above the EEA thresholds, § 8-19, § 21-6 and § 30-7) all follow from this, and the principle gives a basis for access to the documents (DFØ). According to DFØ, KOFA held in case 2023/617 that an evaluation of experience breached the principle, because the contracting authority had documented neither its own experience with the suppliers nor how it obtained references.

Proportionality. What the contracting authority requires and does must be suitable and necessary, and in proportion to the nature, scope, value and complexity of the procurement. The principle limits how strict the requirements you can face may be, for example on your suitability as a supplier and on time limits, and how much can be demanded of the contracting authority in a small procurement (DFØ). Advice: if you believe a requirement goes further than the contract needs, ask the contracting authority in writing before the tender deadline and explain why, before you consider a complaint. The deadlines and the fee for a complaint are on the page on KOFA.

A municipality is buying IT support for its schools for NOK 900,000 over two years. The value is below NOK 1.3 million, so only the Act and Part I of the Regulations apply, and the municipality has no duty to advertise. It sends a request to three suppliers, you among them, and writes that price and quality count equally.

One of the other suppliers phones the municipality and learns how many pupils and computers the agreement is to cover. You do not get that figure. Under the principle of equal treatment, the information should have been given to everyone at the same time. In the end, the municipality chooses a supplier with an office in the municipality and gives proximity as the reason, even though proximity was not among the criteria. That breaches predictability, because the municipality must keep to what it has stated. Advice: ask for written reasons and for access to the assessment, and then consider whether to complain to KOFA.