§ 13. What does it mean to bear the risk for an item?
To «bear the risk» for an item means that you are financially responsible for it. If you bear the risk and the item is stolen, you must pay for it anyway. If the shop bears the risk, you do not have to pay and can demand a new item.
Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська
The text of the law (unofficial translation)
When the risk for the item has passed to the consumer (forbrukeren), the consumer's obligation to pay the purchase price (kjøpesummen) does not lapse because the item is subsequently lost, damaged or diminished as a result of an event that is not attributable to the seller (selgeren).
What does this mean?
From the second the law says the risk has passed from the shop to you, it is your problem if something happens to the item — as long as it is not the seller's fault.
If you drop a mobile phone you just bought on the ground on your way out of the shop, you still have a full obligation to pay the purchase price. The shop's job was done.
If the item is in a postal van that crashes, you do not have to pay — the risk was still with the shop.
Example
Per buys an expensive vase, pays at the till, and trips on the pavement. The vase breaks. Per demands a new vase. He gets nothing — the risk passed to Per when he took the bag. He must bear the loss himself.
Common mistakes
- Thinking you can demand a new item just because it broke shortly after the purchase
- Confusing «accidents you bear the risk for» with a manufacturing fault (a manufacturing fault is the shop's problem)
What should you do?
If the item is stolen or damaged BEFORE you have received it, do not let the seller trick you into paying. Until you have taken over the parcel, the shop bears the risk.