According to a short statement released by Sappi this morning, it was notified yesterday (29 January) by the Bundeskartellamt that it would not be pursuing the complaint lodged by Paperlinx’s German subsidiary Deutsche Papier Vertriebs.

However, PrintWeek understands that while the Bundeskartellamt has decided not to investigate the complaint at this stage, the complaint will be held on file.

In the complaint filed in December, Paperlinx claimed that Sappi varied its prices or delivery times dependent on the identity of the end-buyer or refused to quote entirely if the merchant does not supply the name of the buyer or if a different merchant previously supplied the buyer.

In today's statement, Sappi said: “The Bundeskartellamt decision comes as no surprise. Sappi Fine Paper Europe’s position has always been that its commercial practices in Germany, and in any other country in which it operates, are fully compliant with the applicable competition laws and that Paperlinx’s accusations are entirely unfounded.”

Speaking in December, a Sappi Europe spokesperson said that the Paperlinx allegations were not new and the company was confident that it had acted and was acting in line “with the industry’s long established practices of doing business”.

Speaking this morning, Paperlinx chief executive Andrew Price said he could not comment on the status of the complaint as he had not as yet received any formal notification from the Bundeskartellamt.

The term indent refers to sales secured by a paper merchant, but delivered direct to the customer by the mill. In the UK, they typically involve orders in excess of five tonnes places by larger print companies and high-volume end-users, such as publishers and direct mail buyers.

Indents represent around 60%-70% of paper volumes in Germany and around 30% of the total volume of graphical paper sales in the UK.