The government wants to make it easier to establish limited companies

The Ministry of Trade and Industry stated in a press release on the 24 of february that the government is proposing new rules that will make it easier to establish and register joint stock companies, public limited companies and branches online, across the entire EØS.

Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre says in the press release that digital and modern solutions will be an important contributor to value creation in Norwegian business and industry. Simpler solutions mean that companies save both time and money and can instead use their resources to create new jobs and increase value creation.

Furthermore, Vestre says that more digital solutions will also make the interaction easier for Norwegian companies that want to export their goods to other countries in Europe.

The rule change will make it easier to establish and register joint stock companies electronically across national borders in the EØS. It is also proposed that the possibility be opened up for registering both public limited companies and Norwegian-registered foreign companies electronically. Among other things, it will make it easier for Norwegian export companies to establish operations in other EØS states.

Shorter case processing time and lower fees
The Government also proposes a shorter case processing time for registering limited companies, public limited companies and branches, in order to increase efficiency and predictability for the players. As a general rule, the case processing time shall be set at five working days for the Brønnøysund registries' processing of notifications of first-time registration.

In addition, the government has set a goal in the Hurdal platform to cut overpriced fees. New rules are also proposed for setting a fee for access to case information, information about the companies and the use of the Business Register of the Register of Business Enterprises and the Register of Legal Entities.

More transparency
The Brønnøysund registers already publish a lot of information on their websites about registered companies. The proposal allows for the publication of more company information, so that the public will have good access to this.

The consultation note also proposes that the Brønnøysund registers should publish more information on how to register companies in English. For example, there is information about the rules that apply under Norwegian law for the registration of companies and branches. It is also proposed to share more information between the business registers in the EØS states.

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