§ 25. The shop's duty to tell you about delays
The shop must let you know as soon as they know that your item will be delayed. If they do not tell you, and you lose money because you waited in vain, the shop must cover that loss.
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)
If the seller is prevented from performing the purchase on time, the consumer (forbruker) shall be notified of the impediment and its effect on the ability to perform. If the consumer does not receive such notice within a reasonable time after the seller became or ought to have become aware of the impediment, the consumer may claim compensation for loss that could have been avoided had he or she received the notice in time.
What does this mean?
The seller is not allowed to bury their head in the sand. Even if they may avoid paying compensation for the delay (forsinkelse) itself (force majeure (force majeure), § 24), they are obliged to notify you.
The duty to inform applies as soon as the seller understands — or ought to understand — that they will not meet the deadline.
If they forget to notify you, and you incur a loss because you could not cancel the electrician in time, you can claim to have these costs covered.
Example
Jonas orders an oven with home delivery on Wednesday 10–14. On Monday, the shop knows that the entire batch is damaged. They do not notify Jonas. On Wednesday, the electrician sits waiting for two hours — a wasted call-out costing NOK 1,800. Jonas claims these NOK 1,800 from the shop under § 25. He would have cancelled the electrician if the shop had notified him on Tuesday.
Common mistakes
- Shops that think "the customer will notice that it is delayed anyway" and do not inform them
What should you do?
Document that you were not notified, and that this caused you a cost. Send the claim to the seller and refer to the Consumer Purchases Act § 25.