Standstill period

The standstill period (karensperiode) in public procurement is the time between the contracting authority announcing who has won and the earliest date on which the contract can be concluded. It gives the suppliers who did not win time to assess the choice and go to court before the contract is signed.

The length depends on the value of the contract and on which part of the Public Procurement Regulations (anskaffelsesforskriften) applies. Under Part III (supply, service and works contracts at or above the EEA thresholds), the standstill period must as a rule be at least 10 days. It must be at least 15 days if the contracting authority has made an exception from the requirement to communicate electronically. The same fixed minimum applies to health and social services at or above NOK 8.7 million (Part IV) and to special services (særlige tjenester) above NOK 8.7 million. From NOK 1.3 million up to the EEA thresholds (Part II), the contracting authority must set a reasonable standstill period, with no fixed minimum. That does not apply to health and social services, which have their own rules: between NOK 500,000 and NOK 8.7 million there is no standstill period. For other contracts between NOK 500,000 and NOK 1.3 million (Part I), there is no standstill period either.

The standstill period runs from the day after the notification of the choice of supplier (meddelelse om valg av leverandør) is sent, not from the day you read it. The notification must be sent in writing and at the same time to all suppliers concerned. It must give reasons and state the standstill period. The reasons must name the selected supplier and explain the characteristics and relative advantages of the selected tender, assessed against the award criteria. Under Part III and Part IV, the contracting authority may withhold certain information if releasing it would impede law enforcement or otherwise be contrary to the public interest, harm the legitimate commercial interests of particular public or private undertakings, or harm fair competition between suppliers.

The contracting authority does not need a standstill period when it has no duty to advertise the competition, or when the selected supplier is the only supplier concerned. Contracts awarded under a framework agreement have no standstill period in Part II and Part III either, and in Part III the same applies to a dynamic purchasing system. The details are in the questions below.

The standstill period is the time you have if you believe the choice is wrong. Start with the reasons: compare them with the award criteria and with what you submitted yourself. Request access to the winning tender and to the procurement record. Once the choice has been made, the exemption for tenders in the Freedom of Information Act (offentleglova) no longer applies, but the contracting authority can still withhold information that is subject to a duty of confidentiality. A request for access does not stop the clock.

If the contracting authority finds that the choice breaches the Regulations, it can reverse it until the contract is signed. If you want to stop the contract, you must petition the district court (tingretten) for interim measures (midlertidig forføyning). At or above the EEA thresholds (also for health and social services and special services above NOK 8.7 million), the contracting authority may not conclude the contract once the petition has been served on it, provided the petition was filed before the standstill period expired. This suspension lasts until the district court has ruled, and an appeal does not trigger a new suspension. Below the EEA thresholds there is no such suspension, so the contracting authority can sign while the case is pending. Once the contract is signed, the court can no longer order interim measures. A complaint to KOFA (the Complaints Board for Public Procurement) does not stop the contract. KOFA is advisory, and a complaint has no suspensive effect.

If the standstill period is breached, a court must declare a contract ineffective, but only when the contract is worth at least the EEA thresholds and the contracting authority has both breached the rules in a way that affected your chance of winning the contract and breached the standstill rules so that you could not go to court in time. Other breaches of the standstill rules lead to a shorter contract or an infringement fine, which the court must impose even if you have not asked for it. These sanctions are imposed by the courts. Legal action for these sanctions must be brought within two years after the contract is concluded. If the contracting authority has advertised the competition and sent the suppliers concerned a notification that the contract has been concluded, the time limit is instead 30 days from the day after that notification was sent. A complaint to KOFA about a breach of the standstill period does not stop this time limit. A claim for damages is not covered by these time limits but by the general limitation rules.

Since 1 July 2026, only undertakings established in Norway or another EEA state, or in a state that is party to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) or another agreement binding Norway, have rights under the Act and the Regulations, and the latter only to the extent that agreement gives them rights (Public Procurement Act § 3). Other undertakings may take part in competitions but cannot rely on those rights.

A municipality advertises an open procedure for IT operations worth NOK 6 million. The value is above NOK 2.5 million, so Part III applies. The notification of the choice of supplier is sent on Monday 5 October. The standstill period starts running on Tuesday 6 October and is set at 10 days, so it ends on Thursday 15 October, and the municipality can sign the contract at the earliest after that. You submitted a tender but did not win, and you believe the choice is wrong. You read the reasons the same day, request access to the winning tender, and get a lawyer to help you assess whether to file a petition for interim measures with the district court, by 15 October at the latest and preferably earlier, since the suspension only takes effect once the petition has been served. If such a petition is filed within the time limit and served on the municipality, the municipality cannot sign until the district court has ruled.