Hundreds of forest owners in Finland are demanding compensation from companies in the forest industry.
They're suing the firms at the Helsinki District Court in a suit which opened today.
Some 476 private forest owners are demanding 12 million euros in compensation, as they claim their timber was underpriced by the forest companies -- by 25 percent or more. The private forest owners claim that the forest industry companies lowered the prices through their cartel.
Meanwhile, the forest industry firms say that they had their own price lists for timber for private forest owners between 1998 and 2004, they did not use market prices, and the cartel was not for price-fixing but for exchanging information.
Cartel back story
Back in 2009 Finland’s Market Court found that forest industry giants Metsäliitto, Stora Enso and UPM had been running an illegal wood purchasing cartel between 1997 and 2004. Stora Enso was fined 30 million euros for infringing on competition laws, while Metsäliitto’s penalty was reduced to 21 million euros for assisting competition authorities with their investigations. UPM was cleared in the case because it acted as the whistle blower in the matter.
As the Market Court had no jurisdiction to determine whether or not the defendants’ actions had harmed timber traders, the landowners were forced to take the matter to the civil courts.
The case continues to mid-June at the Helsinki District Court.
