Latvia’s Competition Council has imposed a €7.86 million fine on state-owned Latvijas Valsts Meži (LVM), ruling that a group of wood-processing companies received preferential access to state roundwood under contracts dating back to the 1990s.
LVM has rejected the decision and said it will challenge the fine in court, opening another legal front around the sale of timber from Latvia’s state forests. The ruling is separate from the investigation into the government-backed reduction of softwood sawlog prices that GWMI has reported on extensively in recent months.
