Stora Enso and UPM say they are co-operating fully with competition investigators who have visited their premises around the world in connection with alleged antitrust activities.
European Commission investigators have been to Stora Enso’s premises in London, Stockholm and Düsseldorf and representatives of the Finnish Competition Authority went to Stora Enso Forest’s offices at Imatra and regional offices at Summa, Joensuu, Savonlinna and Kuopio in Finland.
The company’s North American division has received a subpoena for documents from the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice.
Meanwhile, EC investigators have also visited various UPM premises. UPM says it initiated its own internal investigation of competitive practices across all its units in 2003 and put in place additional competition law compliance programmes for its employees, signalling zero tolerance for any antitrust activity.
In 2004, UPM approached competition authorities in the EU, the US and Canada and as a result the EU and Canadian authorities told the company it had conditional full immunity with respect to certain conduct disclosed to them.
In the US, where a grand jury investigation was pending with respect to pressure sensitive labelstock business, UPM continues to co-operate with the US Department of Justice investigation.
