Avery Dennison gears up for EU fine
sensitive adhesive labels, is expecting to be fined by the European
Commission for what it describes as 'instances of improper conduct'
by workers in its European operations.
The company, which is a major supplier of labels to the pharmaceutical industry, has filed a statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, saying that the misconduct was uncovered during an internal investigation.
The probe was started this year after the European Union began to scrutinise three of Europe's largest paper companies, UPM, Norske Skog, and M-real Oyj, as part of an investigation of possible price fixing and manipulation of the European paper market. Avery is already under investigation in the US for alleged anticompetitive practices, but has not disclosed whether the fine relates to this probe.
In May, Avery confirmed that European Commission and other national regulators visited and collected documents from pressure-sensitive materials facilities in the Netherlands and Germany.
At the time, the company said the investigation appeaeds to be related to alleged anti-competitive activities, particularly relating to the market for adhesive label stock.
The size of the expected fine was not revealed, but the company said in the SEC filing that it might be 'material'. The European Commission has the power to levy fines as high as 10 per cent of a company's annual revenue, but rarely do they go this high. Avery Dennison had 2003 revenues of $4.8 billion (€3.7bn).
