During the Spring Conference on the Kiel ferry in the last weekend of April, Kyrre Kielland of the Ræder Bing law firm reviewed legislative changes and current legal issues, with particular emphasis on employment law, consumer law and upcoming EU regulations. The Spring Conference is the Electronics Industry Foundation’s annual conference focusing on workshops and the aftermarket, and Kielland is a regular participant on these trips as a representative of the industry association’s legal partner.
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Age limit and working environment
From 1 January, new rules on retirement age apply. The starting point is that employees can work until they are 72, but companies may set a lower age limit if this is objectively and proportionately justified by health and safety considerations.
The second legislative change from the same date concerns the psychosocial working environment. Kielland stresses that companies should start by mapping their own risk factors.
– The ministry that drafted the law says that this is not really anything new. Everyone had to do it before, but now it is being written into the law, and everyone has to focus on it. The purpose of the proposed amendments is to highlight the psychosocial working environment as a topic.
Kyrre Kielland of the Ræder Bing law firm photographed on the Kiel ferry. Photo: Stian Sønsteng
Kielland further points out that clear guidelines are a key measure, and that feedback must be given on an ongoing basis.
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– If the employee is uncertain, does not quite know what to do and is unsure whether they are doing the job correctly, that can affect their mental wellbeing. Giving employees clear guidance on how they should conduct themselves and do their job is an important part of the psychosocial working environment.
Sale of Goods Act or Consumer Purchases Act
A recurring problem in the industry is the distinction between the Sale of Goods Act and the Consumer Purchases Act. Two conditions must be met for the Consumer Purchases Act to apply: the product must have been purchased by a natural person, and it must not have been used in business activities.
The Elesco board (left to right): Hans Marius Andersen (Electrotec Elesco), Christoffer Hamer (Elesco Norge), Camilla Kleppe (Elrep Elesco), Kjetil Petterson (Pema Miljøteknikk), Liv-Anne Svendsen (Elesco Norge) and Kjell Unes (Elesco Norge). Frank Helstad (Elesco Trondheim) was not present. Photo: Stian Sønsteng
Kielland illustrates this with a specific case involving a Porsche bought through a private limited company, which developed a fault in the charger after less than five years and 38,000 kilometres. The workshop demanded more than NOK 70,000 for the repair and refused to release the car until the amount had been paid.
– The Consumer Purchases Act states that a consumer means a natural person who is not acting mainly as part of business activities. The customer who bought the car through their private limited company is not a natural person within the meaning of the Act. The decisive factor is not who has actually used the car, but who has actually bought it, says Kielland.
The starting point is therefore the Sale of Goods Act’s two-year time limit. Kielland nevertheless points out that there is a legal possibility: if the private limited company sells the item to the owner as a private individual at the actual market price, this triggers a new purchase with full consumer rights.
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– As I read the law, there are actually five completely new years from the transfer from the private limited company. I therefore believe that you can change your status from a private limited company to a consumer, and thereby get five years. A provision in the Consumer Purchases Act also says that I can bring direct claims against previous sales links. When I bypass the private limited company and go straight to the dealer, it is the five-year rules in the Consumer Purchases Act that apply in relation to the dealer, even though the intermediate link only had two years, says Kielland.
The board of the ES chain (left to right): Frank Hegland (Elektrofiks), Svein Ove Hebnes (Hebnes Elektroservice), Maria Kjærlid-Auensen (ES-kjeden), Frode Espnes (Espnes Apparatservice), Leif Skaar (ServiceCompaniet) and Brede Jørgensen (BB elektroservice). Photo: Stian Sønsteng
He stresses that this has not been legally clarified, but that the question could be tested in principle before the courts.
– This happens all the time, whether it is a computer, a television or something else. It is registered to the private limited company and used privately. Then the starting point is two years, and that must be the main rule every time you receive these cases.
Payment and right of retention
A practical question that was discussed concerned the situation where a customer asks the workshop to send the invoice to a third party, which then goes bankrupt.
– The consequence of your agreeing to send the bill to the removal company, and the removal company agreeing to pay, is that you effectively have an agreement with the removal company. The actual customer has only entered into the agreement on behalf of the removal company. The safest approach is to clarify in writing to the customer that the workshop can send the invoice there, but that the customer must pay if the third party does not, says Kielland.
Magnus Bleken (Bleken Data, left) and Terje Nielsen (Østerhus Data og Sikkerhet) supply the Mab and Else data systems. Photo: Stian Sønsteng
The workshop’s right to retain products is also addressed. Kielland points out that as long as the product is at the workshop, the right of retention is lawful, provided that the customer has been given prior written notice of what will happen if repair is not desired. After the product has been handed over, this right lapses.
Number of repair attempts
A legislative amendment that came into force on 1 January 2024 changed the number of permitted repair attempts from two to one per product. Kielland summarises the practical significance as follows:
– You now really only have one attempt to repair it. That is what the law says. But when we looked into it a little, we found that in practice it is much the same as before. For electronics, where the products are complicated, you may have several attempts. The hypothesis was that it is not really such a major change, says the lawyer.
He points out that, in the preparatory works, the ministry has established that the threshold for giving the seller another attempt is not particularly high.
From the Spring Conference 2026. Photo: Stian Sønsteng
Who can carry out technical work
A recurring theme in the aftermarket is the lack of clarity around who is allowed to carry out technical work on different types of equipment. Kielland points out that the regulations create situations where competence in one area does not confer rights in an adjacent one.
– There are different requirements depending on whether you are working with an electrical installation or electrical equipment. If you are only doing work on behalf of a supplier, and have been given the necessary authorisation by them, you do not actually need a trade certificate. In that case, it is the supplier who is responsible for ensuring that you receive sufficient training on the supplier’s products.
Kielland warns that if something catches fire and the electrical installation has been worked on without permission, insurance companies and customers may claim compensation or refuse to pay. The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB) should review what constitutes a «relevant trade certificate», not least because products have evolved and place different demands on installation than before.
Kristoffer (left) and Tom Bahr of Hvitevareteknikk gave a presentation on refrigeration technology. Photo: Stian Sønsteng
EU regulations on the way
He also addresses the wave of EU regulations that will affect the industry in the years ahead. The Ecodesign Regulation entered into force in the EU in 2024 and covers the entire product life cycle, from design and choice of materials to requirements that products must be upgradable, repairable and maintainable. The first concrete market effects are expected during 2026. Towards the end of the year, the EU will also introduce digital product passports containing information on the manufacturer, materials and recycling.
Rules on cybersecurity and resilience in digital products apply to everything that can be controlled by software or is connected to a network, and the deadline is December 2027.
– It is, of course, because people are afraid that all these little gadgets might be little spies in our homes. It may sound a bit paranoid, but that is the background to the regulations. And I believe that all serious manufacturers will have no problems meeting those requirements when they come into force, says Kielland from the stage on the Kiel ferry.
He then goes on to discuss the Batteries Regulation, which entered into force in the EU in 2024 and sets requirements for documentation of the value chain, design and waste control for all products with batteries, regardless of size. The right to repair will be introduced in the EU this summer, while Norway has not yet begun implementation.
– The purpose is for consumers to have a right to repair, and for it to be possible to have repairs carried out instead of the throwaway society that we have all talked about. The directive contains a repair obligation on the part of the manufacturer, requirements for access to spare parts, an obligation to offer repair services and requirements for this to be maintained over time, says lawyer Kyrre Kielland.
