Department of Competition Policy and Economic Analysis

This implies, inter alia, responsibility for the Norwegian Competition Act, the Public Procurement Act and the State Aid Procedures Act, with regulations, and the implementation into Norwegian law of the rules of the EEA Agreement within these fields. In addition, the Department contributes to ensuring that competition considerations are sufficiently considered in other policy areas.

The Department oversees the Competition Authority, the Complaints Board Secretariat and The Norwegian Groceries Supervisory Authority. The Complaints Board secretariat serves the Public Procurement Complaints Board and the Competition Appeals Tribunal, in addition to a number og other appeal boards. The Departement also oversees the professional management of the Division for Public Procurements in the The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ)

The Department performs economic analyses in a number of policy areas, such as economic policies, climate and environmental policies, competitiveness, productivity and sustainable growth.

The Department participates in various forums in EFTA, EU, OECD and WTO.

The department consists of the following sections

• Competition

  The Competition unit oversees the Competition Act, the EEA competition rules, the act relating to fair trading practices in the grocery supply chain and the price policy act. The unit also provides advice on measures that facilitate effective competition. Furthermore, the unit contributes to ensuring that competition considerations are sufficiently considered in other policy areas. This implies, among other things, legislative and regulatory work, economic analysis of competition issues and other projects.

• Economic Analysis

  The Economic Analysis Unit gives advice on general industrial policy and carries out economic analysis. It provides advice on policy for productivity and sustainable growth. Important areas include monitoring and analysing economic trends, advice on economic policy, tax policy, financial markets, labour markets and climate and environmental policies. The Unit is also concerned with issues regarding competitiveness and adaptability of the economy, particurlarly with regard to sustainability and the green transition.

• Public procurement and state aid

  The Unit for public procurement ant state aid is responsible for the rules on state aid and public procurement. The responsibility includes national regulations and the EEA regulations in these areas. The unit aims at, inter alia through regulatory work, to facilitate good and efficient public procurement and good processes in matters concerning state aid. In the area of procurement, the unit aims at designing regulations in order to contribute to contracting authorities carrying out sustainable procurement in the most efficient way possible, while at the same time promoting important social considerations. Within state aid, the unit is responsible for the design of national regulations, provides guidance to aid grantors and is the point of contact between the Norwegian authorities and the EFTA Surveillance Authority, ESA.