Large Austrian timber groups fined for fixing wood tenders in Romania

Romania's Competition Council fined 31 timber producers on the local market for anti-competitive arrangements in the auctions organized during 2011-2016 by the state forest management company Romsilva.

The competition body found that 33 companies, out of the 96 investigated, participated in such arrangements, but two were already closed. These companies agreed not to compete against each other in tenders for wood exploitation to keep prices as low as possible.

The Competition Council decided total fines worth RON 130 million (EUR 26.6 mln) for the 31 companies.

The highest sanctions target the local subsidiaries of Austrian groups Holzindustrie Schweighoffer (HS) - RON 51.7 mln (EUR 10.6 mln), Kronospan - RON 46.4 mln (EUR 9.5 mln), and Egger - RON 22.6 mln (EUR 4.64 mln). These three groups are also the biggest players in the local timber industry, which explains the high level of the fines against them, as competition fines are usually a percentage of the turnover.

The other companies sanctioned are mostly smaller producers controlled by local investors.

Some 13 companies, including the three Austrian groups' subsidiaries, admitted to violating competition law and benefited from reductions in fines.

Egger Romania, one of the companies that cooperated with the Competition Council in this investigation, admitted that, although it has not initiated such arrangements, its employees didn't act to end such practices, Economica.net reported.

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