Klarna, the Swedish buy-now-pay-later provider (BNPL), has been reported to the Norwegian Consumer Authority (Forbrukertilsynet) for allegedly failing to provide clear information about interest paid on its BNPL products.

According to Forbrukerrådet, Norway’s Consumer Council which reported Klarna, the company failed to display clear costs of what credit purchases may actually cost – a violations of marketing regulations. The failures occurred both on physical posters as well as in online stores that offer the company’s payment services.

“[We] are concerned that young consumers in particular do not understand that “taking it on Klarna” is the same as buying on credit. Klarna must ensure that the costs of the credit purchase are clearly stated, so that people can assess the consequences of what they are doing, said Guro Sollien Eriksrud, Head of Consumer Economics at the Consumer Council.

Majority of young women using BNPL

According to the Debt Register in Norway, consumer debt increased from May 2024 to May 2025, especially among young people – with BNPL services part of the increase. Klarna is the biggest BNPL provider in Norway today, which “indicates that Klarna purchases account for much of the growth,” Sollien Eriksrud said.

The majority of the young Norwegians using consumer credit were women.

“For most people, this is not a problem, but around 1.1 million Norwegians have interest-bearing consumer debt. This is very expensive debt, which can have a severe impact on other things we want or need money for,” Sollien Eriksrud added.

The Consumer Authority took action against Klarna earlier in 2024 when it found the BNPL service to be a credit agreement, and therefore failing to comply with the central and mandatory requirements that apply to credit agreements in the Financial Contracts Act, chapters 3 and 5. The authority ordered Klarna to submit new documentation on how to comply with the regulations, otherwise a NKr 9m ($1.5m) penalty a week would be imposed.

Other fines on Klarna

Klarna has also been facing scrutiny in the Netherlands, where the District Court of Midden-Nederland ruled in April that the company failed to prove it did not profit from late payment fees. The company also extended consumer credit without properly informing customers about it. This, according to the court, “constitutes a loan, while Klarna failed to clearly indicate that.”

Two Swedish authorities also recently issued fines against the company. In December 2024, Klarna was fined SKr 500m ($45.6m) for violating anti-money-laundering (AML) regulations. The fine was levied by Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, after an investigation into Klarna’s compliance measures connected with AML regulations, risk requirements, and customer due diligence between April 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022.

In the investigation, the Financial Supervisory Authority found multiple violations of key rules, including significant deficiencies in the company’s general AML risk assessment – such as it not having any assessments in place on how its products and services could be used to launder money or to finance terrorism.

“[We] are concerned that young consumers in particular do not understand that ‘taking it on Klarna’ is the same as buying on credit.”

Guro Sollien Eriksrud, Head of Consumer Economics at the Consumer Council

Earlier in March 2024, a Swedish court ruled violating the EU’s GDPR by failing to provide adequate information to its users about on user data storage, protection and transfers outside the EU – and therefore fined SKr 7.5m ($733,324).

Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY), the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, first issued the fine in March 2022 after investigating Klarna and finding multiple EU GDPR failings.