Forest industry giant Stora Enso announced on Monday that it would not be appealing to the Supreme Administrative Court over the heavy fines imposed by the Market Court at the beginning of this month for illegal price fixing of raw timber in 1997-2004.
Stora Enso was fined EUR 30 million, and another member of the cartel Metsäliitto was ordered to pay EUR 21 million. Metsäliitto reported last week that it would abide by the court's decision.
A third party involved in the case - UPM-Kymenne - was not subject to the same sanctions because it acted as the whistle-blower over the national price cooperation and exchange of information in the purchase of roundwood, and informed the Finnish Competition Authority (FCA) about the existence of the cartel.
In spite of its decision not to appeal, Stora Enso still regards the Market Court decision as a wrongful one.
The company will correspondingly record a EUR 30 million negative non-recurring item related to the penalty in its fourth quarter 2009 results.
