How to Verify a Norwegian Company Before Doing Business

Why a quick check is worth it

When you deal with a company in another country, you lose the informal signals you rely on at home: you have not seen its premises, you do not know its reputation and you may not read the language of its documents. Fortunately, Norway is one of the easiest countries in the world to check. Almost every fact that matters for a first assessment is published by the state, free of charge, and identified by one number.

This guide is a checklist you can run in about fifteen minutes. It does not replace legal or credit advice for large contracts, but it catches most of the problems that cost foreign companies money: companies that no longer exist, impostors using a real company's name, and companies far too small for the order they place.

Step 1: Get the organisation number

Every Norwegian legal entity has a unique nine-digit organisation number (organisasjonsnummer), assigned by Brønnøysundregistrene, the Brønnøysund Register Centre. The last digit is a check digit, so a mistyped number usually fails. Norwegian companies print the number on invoices and websites, often followed by "MVA" when they are VAT registered, for example "NO 123 456 789 MVA".

Ask for the number in writing. A legitimate Norwegian company will give it without hesitation. If someone claiming to represent a Norwegian company cannot or will not, treat that as a serious warning sign.

Step 2: Look it up in the official register

Enter the number at Brønnøysundregistrene's search, in the open data API, or in Propler's free company search, which shows a nightly copy of the same register. Check:

• Name and address. Do they match what you were told? Fraudsters often copy the name of a real company but use a different address, phone number or e-mail domain.
• Status. Make sure the entity is not marked as bankrupt (konkurs), under winding-up (under avvikling) or under compulsory dissolution (tvangsavvikling). A company can still exist in the register while it is being wound up.
• Registration date. A company registered last month that orders goods worth a year of its likely turnover deserves extra questions.
• Industry code and purpose. Does the registered activity fit the business you are discussing?

Step 3: Understand the legal form

The legal form tells you who is liable and what information exists:

• AS (aksjeselskap) is a private limited company, the most common form for businesses. The owners' liability is limited to their share capital.
• ASA is a public limited company.
• ENK (enkeltpersonforetak) is a sole proprietorship. The owner is personally liable, and there are usually no public accounts unless the business passes certain size limits.
• NUF is a Norwegian branch of a foreign company. The branch is not a separate legal entity; the real counterparty is the foreign company behind it.
• DA and ANS are partnerships with shared or joint and several liability.

Step 4: See who runs it and who may sign

The register shows the board (styre), the CEO (daglig leder) and, for companies in the Register of Business Enterprises, who holds the right to sign for the company (signatur) and any procuration (prokura), a narrower authority to act for the business. Brønnøysundregistrene's own guidance explains that signature is the power to act and sign for the business, and that the register states whether holders act alone or jointly.

For a large contract, check that the person signing actually holds that authority, or ask for a board resolution. The register tells you who is formally responsible, but not who makes day-to-day purchasing decisions.

Step 5: Read the annual accounts

Limited companies, and some other entities, must file annual accounts with the Register of Company Accounts by 31 July each year, and the accounts are public. Look at:

• Revenue to judge whether the company has the size for the deal.
• Operating result and net result to see whether it makes money.
• Equity to see whether it can absorb losses. Negative equity is a warning sign.
• The year. Missing accounts for a company that should have filed are a warning sign in themselves.

Our Norwegian company data guide explains how to read the figures and where each one comes from.

Step 6: Check VAT registration

The register shows whether the company is registered in the VAT register (Merverdiavgiftsregisteret). A trading company that claims a large turnover but is not VAT registered should be asked why.

Step 7: Compare with the company's own channels

Visit the company's website by typing the address yourself rather than following a link in an e-mail. Check that the website shows the same organisation number, and that the e-mail addresses you are dealing with use the company's real domain. Call the company on a number from the website or the register, not one from the e-mail signature, before you change payment details or ship valuable goods.

Warning signs

• The organisation number is missing, invalid or belongs to a different name.
• The company is being wound up or has recently been through bankruptcy proceedings.
• The order is very large compared with the company's revenue.
• Contact uses free e-mail services or a domain that differs slightly from the real one.
• There is pressure to ship before payment, or a last-minute change of bank details.

None of these proves fraud, and none of the checks above guarantees a good customer. Together they make a costly mistake much less likely.

Checking companies in other countries

The same approach works elsewhere in Europe, with each country's own register: Bolagsverket in Sweden, CVR in Denmark, Companies House in the United Kingdom and the Sirene register in France. See our guides to business opportunities in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom and France market pages. Propler itself covers Norwegian companies only.

How Propler helps

Every Norwegian company page in Propler brings the register facts, status, roles and latest filed accounts together on one page, with the date the data was fetched, and the company search is free without login. If you are still looking for the right companies, start with our guide to finding business partners in Norway from abroad.