The price in a supplier agreement often covers more than the goods or the service itself. Freight, delivery and handling fees can all be included, and a yearly rent can cover equipment for the whole year.
Invoices don't always follow those terms. A cost the price already covers can still turn up as a line of its own, charged on top. This article looks at two examples, one with freight and one with rent.
Two Watchdog examples
Freight the prices already included
The case
A Norwegian municipality buys kindergarten equipment under a framework agreement, which fixes prices and terms for orders over several years.
What the agreement said
The prices include all relevant costs, and the agreement names them: freight, delivery costs, handling fees and invoicing fees.
What was invoiced
Between March 2025 and January 2026, the supplier added a separate freight line to six invoices. On one of them, rain barrels and stands cost NOK 18,921 and the freight NOK 16,359.
- Invoices
- 6
- Overcharged by
- 9.5%
- Total overcharged
- NOK 45,757
Daily rent the yearly rent already covered
The case
A mid-sized Norwegian company rents gas packs, which are sets of gas cylinders bundled together.
What the agreement said
A three-year rental from February 2024 to January 2027, paid once a year at NOK 7,354 per pack. The supplier may charge daily rent only once the rental has ended.
What was invoiced
In April and May 2026, while the rental was still running, the supplier sent five invoices for daily rent: 237 days at NOK 250.90 a day.
- Invoices
- 5
- Days of daily rent
- 237
- Total overcharged
- NOK 59,463
What happened next
The company claimed the money back. In June, the supplier credited the daily rent, including one credit note of NOK 108,890 excluding VAT. That credit note covers 434 days of daily rent, more than the 237 days above, and doesn't say which invoices it covers.
Our recommendation
Make the agreement say plainly what the price includes. Name the costs the price covers, such as freight, delivery, packaging and fees, and for rented equipment, say what the rent covers and when daily rent can start.
Then look out for new kinds of lines on the invoices. A charge you haven't seen from a supplier before is the one to check against the agreement. If it shouldn't be there, look for the same line on the supplier's earlier invoices too.