In statement released this morning, Paperlinx said that far from the complaint being dismissed “PaperlinX continues to engage with the Bundeskartellamt and submit additional evidence in connection with this matter. The complaint remains on file and there has not been any formal decision.”

The Paperlinx rebuttal follows Sappi Fine Paper Europe issuing a statement yesterday that said the Bundeskartellamt would not be pursuing the complaint lodged by Paperlinx’s German subsidiary Deutsche Papier Vertriebs.

The complaint submitted by Paperlinx in December centred on allegations of anti-competitive behaviour relating to indent sales by the South African paper manufacturer. In essence, the complaint alleges that Sappi in effect assigns customers to merchants and will not provide a competitive quote if a merchant wishes to supply a customer that has been allocated to another merchant.

In yesterday’s statement, Sappi said: “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.”

However, the statement provoked a strongly worded response from Paperlinx, which said that it stands by its December allegations and reiterated that it believed “Sappi is acting in breach of EU and German competition laws to the significant detriment of PaperlinX and paper customers in the industry”.

The statement added that the company believed that in recent years the practice had impacted “billions of euros” of indent paper sales and that it would “continue to pursue the complaint vigorously through its ongoing engagement with the Bundeskartellamt”.