At the end of January 2008 the Bundeskartellamt imposed fines totalling 62 million euros against three manufacturers of décor paper and five persons responsible on account of price fixing and agreements on capacity shutdowns. The three companies are Munksjö Paper GmbH, Aalen, Felix Schoeller Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Osnabrück, and Arjo Wiggins Deutschland GmbH, Dettingen; investigations against further manufacturers of décor paper are still ongoing.

The companies involved are registered companies of the three major European manufacturers of décor papers. Décor papers are specialty papers for the surface refinement of wood products. They are primarily used in the furniture industry and for interior fittings. The agreements involved coordinated price increases over a period from at least August 2005 until early November 2007. Furthermore, in the second half of 2007, the cartel members also agreed on coordinated capacity shutdowns to reduce over-capacities in the market.

The proceedings started with a search carried out on 6 November 2007. Three premises were searched in Germany and, upon request by the Bundeskartellamt, one further premise in Sweden. Substantial evidence was seized.

The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Dr Heitzer, stated: “The proceedings are proof that the Bundeskartellamt takes swift and decisive action against any form of cartel agreements. The cooperation within the European competition authorities’ network has proved extremely efficient and successful in this context. I expressly thank the staff of the Swedish competition authority for their unbureaucratic support in these proceedings.”

The three companies concerned have announced their acceptance of the fines.