Who can legally sign for a Norwegian company?
By Antony Richard Grov, founder of Apier
By default, the board of a Norwegian AS signs for the company jointly: unless something else is registered, the directors act together under aksjeloven, and no single person can bind the company alone. Most companies register a more practical arrangement: signaturrett granted to named persons or roles, alone or in combinations such as two board members together or the chair alone. Prokura is a narrower registered authority for day-to-day business that never covers selling or mortgaging real property. The daglig leder runs daily operations but does not automatically hold general signaturrett; if the CEO can sign alone, that grant is registered. For an enkeltpersonforetak the answer is fixed: the innehaver always signs alone, and that cannot be reassigned. When the register shows nothing, the honest answer is unknown, so verify before you rely on a signature.
What is the statutory default for an AS?
An aksjeselskap is represented by its board. Unless a different arrangement is registered, the board signs for the company jointly, which Norwegian usage calls acting i fellesskap: the signature that binds the company is the whole board's, not any single director's. This is the statutory default under aksjeloven, and it applies on its own, with no registration needed. It is also the arrangement everything else falls back to: strike the registered grants from a company and you are left with the board acting together.
The default is deliberately strict, and in practice too strict for daily business, which is why most companies register something narrower. But it matters more than it looks. When you assess a signature and find no registered signaturrett, the board acting jointly is the arrangement a counterparty can rely on, and any signature short of that needs a registered grant behind it.
What does registered signaturrett change?
Signaturrett is the general authority to bind the company, and companies register it to replace the all-board default with something workable. The grant can go to named persons or to roles, and it can be sole or joint: the register might say the chair alone, two board members together, or the daglig leder and one board member jointly. The registration is filed as part of a Samordnet registermelding through Altinn, and the registered text is public.
Read the combination text exactly. A joint grant means every named signature must be present before the company is bound; one of two required signatures is not half a signature, it is none. The wording also decides who can be substituted: a grant to a role follows whoever holds the role, while a grant to a named person means exactly that person.
If you need the definitional split between the two registered authorities, the prokura and signaturrett guide owns that comparison in depth, and the signature rights docs page walks the resolution end to end. When the question is operational, checking a specific company by API before a contract goes out, the verification guide owns the how-to.
What does prokura cover, and where does the daglig leder stand?
Prokura is the second registered authority, and it is narrower by definition: it authorises day-to-day business, and it explicitly excludes selling or mortgaging the company's real property. A prokurist can keep operations running, sign orders and routine agreements, and still be the wrong signature on a property transaction. When prokura is the only authority registered, the classification is prokura only, and anything outside daily operations still needs signaturrett or the board.
The daglig leder sits in a position that surprises many counterparties. The role carries day-to-day management, but it does not automatically include general signaturrett: the title alone does not let the CEO bind the company to whatever is put in front of them. Many companies do grant their daglig leder signaturrett, alone or jointly, and when they do, the grant is registered like any other. The practical rule is to trust the register over the job title.
Who signs for an enkeltpersonforetak?
For an ENK the question collapses to one person. The innehaver personally carries the enterprise's rights and obligations, always holds the signing authority alone, and cannot reassign it: there is no board to fall back on and no way to register the authority away. What the innehaver can do is grant prokura under prokuraloven, which gives someone else the day-to-day authority while the innehaver keeps the full one.
That fixed answer makes ENK verification simple in one direction and sharp in the other: a contract signed by anyone other than the innehaver needs a registered prokura behind it, and even then only within prokura's day-to-day limits. The register still earns a look, because the prokura grant, where one exists, is registered and public like every other authority on this page.
| Situation | Who signs | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Signaturrett registered to named persons | Those persons, alone or as the combination says | Read the exact registered text |
| Joint combination registered | Every named person, together | One signature short means not signed |
| Only prokura registered | The prokurist, day-to-day business only | Never a sale or mortgage of real property |
| Nothing registered (AS) | The board jointly | The statutory default under aksjeloven |
| Enkeltpersonforetak | The innehaver, always alone | Prokura can be granted for daily operations |
Make the first call
The sandbox call answers the who question for a simulated company with no key at all: the classification, the named holders and the registered combinations. The TypeScript sample makes the same read against the live endpoint with an Apier key, so your system can resolve who signs before a contract or payment goes out.
# Zero-auth sandbox: who signs for a company, as one classification.
curl -s https://www.apier.no/api/v1/sandbox/public/company/999999999/authority// Who may sign for the company, reduced to one classification:
// sole, joint, by_role, prokura_only, no_authority or unknown.
const res = await fetch(
"https://www.apier.no/api/v1/company/999999999/authority",
{
headers: {
Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.APIER_API_KEY}`,
},
},
);
if (!res.ok) {
// Every non-2xx answers the same structured envelope.
const { error_code, explanation } = await res.json();
throw new Error(`${error_code}: ${explanation.summary}`);
}
const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data.classification, data.summary);
// Named holders, then the registered signing combinations.
for (const holder of data.signaturrett_holders) {
console.log("signaturrett:", holder.role, holder.name);
}
for (const combo of data.combinations) {
console.log(combo.role_codes.join(" + "), combo.description);
}Frequently asked questions
- Can the CEO (daglig leder) sign alone?
- Not automatically. The daglig leder role covers day-to-day management, but general signaturrett does not follow from the title. Many companies do grant the CEO signaturrett, alone or together with a board member, and when they do, the grant is registered and visible in the company's registry record. So the answer for a specific company is a lookup, not an assumption: check what is registered. If nothing is registered for the CEO, the safe conclusion is that a contract signed by the CEO alone may need the board's signature instead.
- What does signing i fellesskap mean?
- It means jointly: every person the combination names must sign before the company is bound. The statutory default for an AS is the board acting i fellesskap, which requires the whole board. Registered combinations narrow that down to something practical, such as two board members together or the chair and one member jointly. A document signed by only one of the required people is not signed by the company, no matter how senior the signer is, so read the combination text exactly as registered.
- Where is signing authority registered, and is it public?
- Signaturrett and prokura are registered with Brønnøysundregistrene through a Samordnet registermelding filed via Altinn, and the registered text is public: anyone can look up a company at brreg.no and read who signs. Note the split between registers, though: the open Enhetsregisteret role data covers board roles and daglig leder, while the signaturrett and prokura texts are Foretaksregisteret data. Apier's authority endpoint reads both signals and reduces them to one classification with the named holders and combinations.
- Is prokura enough to sign a property sale?
- No. Prokura is the registered authority for day-to-day business, and it explicitly excludes selling or mortgaging the company's real property. A property sale needs a signature that follows from signaturrett: the registered holders and combinations, or, when nothing is registered for an AS, the board acting jointly. If the only registered authority on a company is prokura, treat a property transaction as unsigned until the right people have signed.
- What if the register shows nothing?
- Then the honest machine answer is unknown, not 'no authority'. The open registry tier does not expose the signaturrett and prokura texts, so an empty answer can mean either that nothing is registered or that the data sits in a register the open tier cannot see. For an AS the statutory fallback is the board signing jointly, but verify before relying on that: Apier's authority endpoint returns unknown explicitly when the signal is missing, so your system can route the case to a human instead of guessing.