German Court Upholds Refusal To Access Leniency Documents In The Pfleiderer Case

On 18 January 2012, the Local Court of Bonn (the Bonn Court) upheld the decision of the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) refusing Pfleiderer AG, a manufacturer of wood products and laminate flooring (and also a customer of all three participants of a former decor paper cartel) unlimited access to the FCO's corresponding cartel file. Pfleiderer had requested additional information with a view to preparing a follow-up action for damages.

In 2008, the FCO fined the three largest European manufacturers of decor paper a total of € 62 million for infringing competition law by engaging in price fixing and reaching agreements on capacity closures (see VBB on Competition Law, Volume 2008, No. 2, available at www.vbb.com). Following that decision, Pfleiderer requested access to the FCO's file. The FCO granted Pfleiderer access only to a non-confidential version of the file which had been cleared of business secrets, internal documents and the leniency application submitted