No charges against Finnish pulp and paper company UPM in US cartel investigation

Former CEO Juha Niemelä's role under separate investigation

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Finnish pulp and paper company UPM will not face anti-trust action in the United States over allegations of illegal cooperation among competitors in labelstock marketing.
      The US Department of Justice has also dropped charges of fixing prices in magazine paper.
      The decision not to press charges is conditional to UPM's continued and full cooperation with the US Department of Justice and competition authorities.
      The immunity was extended to the company's present and former personnel, with the exception of former CEO Juha Niemelä.
     
This does not mean that any decisions have yet been made concerning Niemelä: the US authorities have simply separated the Niemelä case from the others for investigative reasons.
      Niemelä's American legal counsel Richard W. Beckler specified in a fresh statement that contacts between the competition authorities and Niemelä will continue separately from contacts with UPM, and that Niemelä has not yet been charged in the case.
     
UPM's General Counsel Juha Mäkelä says that the decision is quite clear from the company's point of view.
      "The company is released of its risk of being prosecuted, if it continues to follow closely the requirements of cooperation set by the authorities", he says.
      The conditional decision not to prosecute could be dismantled if the authorities judge that UPM's cooperation is not complete, or if something happens on the market that suggests that there may be more cooperation among the competitors.
     
The cartel investigations into the labelstock market began in the United States already in April 2003. In August UPM received a subpoena over competition issues.
      On January 15th, 2004 UPM decided to make use of the possibilities offered by the law to help competition authorities in their investigations, and thereby to manage with fewer sanctions.
      The company contacted the competition authorities of the European Union, Canada, and later, those of other countries.
      Officials of the EU and its many member states, as well as those of Canada and a number of other countries, have granted UPM a conditional lifting of charges in areas in which the company has passed on information to officials.
      Labelstock (or label stock) is the term for paper stock on which is placed adhesive and then a removable surface label. There are numerous types.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish forest companies face class-action suit in USA (11.6.2004)
  Competition Authority refuses to hand over documents in forest industry cartel case (7.6.2004)
  Police raid offices of numerous forest companies over cartel suspicions (26.5.2004)
  Juha Niemelä unexpectedly resigns as CEO of UPM-Kymmene (30.1.2004)

Links:
  UPM
  Label (Wikipedia)

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