Low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle and the Norwegian government are locked in a dispute over a €40 million fine imposed in December last year. The carrier now brought a lawsuit.

In the complaint, dated January 9, 2023, against the decision of the Ministry of Climate and Environment, the airline is challenging the imposed environmental penalty in the Oslo District Court. Norwegian Air Shuttle has been accused of failing to meet climate quotas in 2020 and has therefore been fined around €40m. But the carrier doesn't want to let that sit on its own.

From the low-cost airline's point of view, it should behave like this: “We disagree and are very disappointed that the Norwegian state has imposed a sky-high fee on us when in fact we have complied with Norwegian law. During reconstruction, there was a clear requirement not to treat claims and creditors differently. If we had nevertheless paid the entire quota obligation, this could have resulted in criminal liability, the Norwegian reconstructor made that very clear. Unfortunately, we now have to take legal action to obtain final clarification and are being forced to file a subpoena, which we would have gladly waived. We don't deny that we had a quota obligation, but like all other claims under the recovery, it was 5 percent of the amount owed, not the full amount. This applied to all claims and creditors - including many small private providers who unfortunately faced greater challenges than state actors. It is also surprising that the Norwegian authorities ask us to do this and even impose a fine of NOK 400 million, while the same problem was not a problem in EU country Ireland, where we carried out a similar reconstruction. Here the environmental authorities have chosen to respect the sanitation. As you know, the EU emissions trading system is an EU regulation and not a special Norwegian regulation”.

The most recent annual report (period: July to September 2022) shows that provisions in the amount of 15 million Norwegian kroner have been made. The company assumed that the ministry would uphold the complaint and at least reduce the amount of the fine. This did not happen, however, because the government agency is sticking to the decision. Now the matter is pending in court, so a court will decide.