Norway – EUCAM

This page contains information on statutory alcohol marketing
regulations in Norway (table 1); a description of the restrictions per medium (table 2); labelling information (table 3); information on self-regulations on alcohol marketing (table 4); the complaints procedure; and lastly a summary about the Norwegian regulations on alcohol marketing, including exhaustive, downloadable documents from the ELSA & FASE research projects.

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Show more detailed information about the alcohol marketing regulations in this country>>

Norway has a statutory law, with corresponding regulations, that concerns the marketing of alcoholic beverages: Act on the sale of alcoholic beverages of 2 of June 1989 (The Alcohol Act). Section 9 of the Alcohol Act states that “The advertising of alcoholic beverages shall be prohibited.”

The Directorate for Health supervises and can impose sanctions if the law have been broken.

Statutory law upholds a ban on advertising, so there is no further self-regulation by the industry in this regard. Norway has little marketing of alcohol due to the prohibition against advertising of alcoholic beverages.

“The Norwegian advertising ban does not permit alibi marketing. Advertising for non-alcoholic beer, cider etc. is permitted, but not under a brand name that is associated with alcoholic drinks.”

The Directorate of Health has a more thorough description of the rules regarding the ban on advertising and how they are to be understood. These are available in Norwegian via this link. These are not additional regulations, but more of an in-depth interpretation of the existing law, and a guide.

Complaints about advertisements can be filed by anyone (citizens and organisations etc.) either to the Directorate for Health or to the relevant municipality. If there is found to be a breach, the Directorate for Health requests the illegal marketing to cease. However, if the illegal marketing continues sanctions will be imposed. The size and character of the sanctions will vary from case to case.

There have been some recent changes in the regulations. These have opened for the use of some (neutral) imagery. For example can breweries or producers of alcoholic beverages now publish neutral, product specific imagery and information about their products. This is limited to neutral/ product-specific information, and imagery on a neutral background, that gives information about content, production, smell, taste, colour, serving suggestions, retailers, optimal storage and use. This information can only be given in places/sites the consumers themselves seek out, and only if information about the potential dangers of alcohol and nutritional information is included. (Regulations 14-3 nr. 14)

The Directorate for Health is responsible for the supervision, and is able to give fines when the law has been violated (a specific fine is decided but it will not be brought into effect unless the breach is upheld or repeated. If the advertising in question is in connection with a pub/restaurant or the like, the municipality will be in charge of complaints and sanctions. They have the power, if the breach is upheld or repeated over time, to withdraw the licence for a while.

Link to a recent overview of the regulations

Table 1	Statutory Alcohol marketing regulations in Norway	Coverage
	LOV 1989-06-02 nr 27: Lov om omsetning av alkoholholdig drikk m.v. alkoholloven § 9-2, samt kap.9 i forskrift av 11 desember 1997 nr. 1292 om omsetning av alkoholholdig drikk mv. (Act on the sale of alcoholic beverages of 2 of June 1989 (the Alcohol Act), unofficial translation)	TV, radio, cinema, sponsoring, internet/digital media, outdoor, print, promotional items. Newspapers, magazines and other media's coverage of alcoholic beverages is editorial material which is not considered alcohol advertising and thus fall outside the prohibition of alcohol law.
	Forskrift om omsetning av alkoholholdig drikk mv. (alkoholforskriften)	The ban on marketing is regulated in chapter 14. This Regulation is an addition that “fills in” the law/gives more in-depth information about what the wording in the the Alcohol Act encompasses.

Table 2 Regulations per medium	Type of restrictions
TV	Ban on advertising for all alcoholic beverages (Chapter 9, the Alcohol Act).
Radio	Ban on advertising for all alcoholic beverages (Chapter 9, the Alcohol Act).
Outdoor marketing	Ban on advertising for all alcoholic beverages (Chapter 9, the Alcohol Act).
Printed media	Newspapers, magazines and other media's coverage of alcoholic beverages is editorial material which is not considered alcohol advertising and thus fall outside the prohibition of alcohol law (the Alcohol Act). Adverts found in imported foreign magazines which are not imported/distributed for the sole purpose of advertising alcoholic beverages is allowed.
Cinema	Ban on advertising for all alcoholic beverages (Chapter 9, the Alcohol Act).
Internet/digital media	Ban on promotion of alcoholic beverages on the Internet for sites that are open to the public. If the website is restricted, with a password that only divulged to licensees or other employees in the industry, the product information and other marketing of alcohol could be published. The password must only be granted on request, be unique for each user and not e.g. a company name (the Alcohol Act)
Promotional items	As a rule, licensees can, as part of the normal turnover process, distribute product information, newsletters, email, sms, advertising circulars, samples etc. to licensees and registered importers / wholesalers, of alcohol in accordance with Regulations § 14-3 No. 2. This type of information can go from an importer / wholesaler directly to resellers, such as sales or licenced sellers of alcohol (the Alcohol Act, Regulations § 14-3 No. 2)
(Sports) sponsorship	Ban on advertising for all alcoholic beverages (Chapter 9, the Alcohol Act). Naturally this is “challenged” when a large number of the bigger international competitions shown on Norwegian TV have sponsors and/or ads in arenas of this nature.

Table 3 Labelling information	Description	Legally binding or self-regulation
Health warnings:	No
Ingredients/nutritional information	No

Table 4 Non-statutory Alcohol marketing regulations in Norway	Coverage
There are no non-statutory regulations on alcohol marketing in Norway	None

Background information about the regulations in Norway

https://eucam.info/2023/12/14/supervising-the-norwegian-advertisingban-in-the-age-of-social-media-insights-and-reflections/

The alcohol advertising ban in Norway: Effects on recorded alcohol sales: link

The following document contains an in depth overview of alcohol marketing regulations in Norway: alcohol-marketing-regulations-Norway.pdf

For even more (but older) information on alcohol marketing regulations in Norway, please take a look at Norway’s appendix to the 2007 ELSA (Enforcement of national Laws and Self-regulation on advertising and marketing of Alcohol) report.

For information about alcohol monopolies: https://www.shaap.org.uk/blog/332-alcohol-monopolies.html.