§ 4-3. Authorising a payee to withdraw money from your account (direct debit)

This section allows the payer to authorise a payee to withdraw money from the payer's account repeatedly. Such withdrawals are called direct debits, and the authorisation is called a direct debit authorisation. The authorisation must be in writing. It must clearly state who the payee is and which account may be debited. It must also have an amount limit for how much can be withdrawn in total, and state the time period the limit applies to. Finally, it must contain the payer's consent to the withdrawals.

The payer must notify their own bank in writing about the authorisation. The bank has a duty to check: before each direct debit, it must check that the notice of the authorisation has been received, and that the debit stays within what the authorisation allows. In other words, a payee cannot withdraw money unless the bank has first been told about the agreement.

The payer can at any time withdraw consent for transactions that have not yet been initiated, or change other parts of the authorisation. The change or withdrawal is notified in writing or in the agreed manner. The bank must ensure that the debits stop, or that the changes take effect, no later than the business day after the notice arrived. Example: a payer wants to stop the withdrawals to a payee and notifies the bank; the bank must then ensure that the withdrawals stop no later than the business day after it received the message.

The fifth paragraph makes an exception for EU rules on strong customer authentication (an extra, secure identification of the customer) and for rules on euro direct debits. The latter are part of Norwegian law through the EEA (EØS) Agreement. Where such rules go further, they take precedence over the first to fourth paragraphs.

The section builds on the consent rule in § 4-2: A payment is authorised only if the payer has consented. A standing payment order (betalingsoppdrag) in § 4-4 must state the same kind of information. The bank's duty to carry out authorised orders is set out in § 4-6, and the right to cancel a payment order is set out in § 4-7. Amount limits for payment instruments (betalingsinstrumenter), which are something other than the amount limit in the authorisation, are set out in § 4-9.