The Norwegian Competition Authority has hit global oilfield services giant SLB with a NOK 30 million (€2.6 million) fine for providing misleading information during its merger review of oilfield chemical company ChampionX.
Antitrust officials revealed that the inaccuracies were discovered within the formal acquisition filing submitted by SLB in January 2025. The notification contained inaccurate details regarding the historical bidding and ranking performance of both SLB and ChampionX in competitive tenders for production chemicals. Additionally, the filings misrepresented specific equipment configurations SLB deploys for offshore drilling operations across the Norwegian continental shelf.
Because merger review procedures operate under strict statutory deadlines, regulatory authorities rely heavily on complete and truthful corporate disclosures to evaluate market concentrations accurately. Competition Director Mads Magnussen stressed that receiving accurate data forms the fundamental basis of merger control, warning that incomplete filings create a significant risk of decisions being made on faulty premises.
Under Norway’s Competition Act, regulatory authorities possess the statutory power to levy administrative penalties up to one percent of a company’s total annual turnover for filing false or misleading information. Department Director Marita Mæland Skjæveland emphasized that imposing a substantial fine was essential to maintain a deterrent effect and protect the integrity of future merger control proceedings. SLB retains the statutory right to appeal the sanction to the Competition Complaints Board within six months of receiving the formal ruling.