§ 52. Administrative fines under the Package Travel Act

An administrative fine is an administrative sanction, meaning a financial penalty that an authority can impose without the case going to a criminal court. It can be used when someone has intentionally or negligently (carelessly) broken certain rules on information in the Act, and the breach is either material or has happened several times. The fine is a "may" rule: the authority is not obliged to use it.

The rules covered mainly concern information to travellers (reisende). Under § 13, for example, the traveller is not bound by an electronic booking if the button is not clearly marked to show that the booking involves an obligation to pay.

The amount of the fine is decided by how serious the breach is, how extensive it is and what effects it has had. The deadline for payment is four weeks from when the decision was made. Once the decision becomes final, the fine can be collected by force, because it then constitutes grounds for enforced debt collection. The Ministry can lay down further rules on calculating the fine in regulations.

Supervision of the Act's rules lies with the Norwegian Consumer Authority (Forbrukertilsynet) and the Market Council (Markedsrådet), except for chapter 8 (§ 51). Breaches of chapter 8 are instead punished under § 53 with fines (bøter) or imprisonment (fengsel) for up to three months. The administrative fine and the criminal penalty therefore cover different parts of the Act. Section 50 concerns the complaints board (tvistenemnd).

Example: An organiser (arrangør) repeatedly fails to give travellers the information required before the contract is made. The authority can then impose a fine, and the amount is decided by how serious and extensive the breaches are.