An affected group of companies had lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court (OGH), according to which there was no justified initial suspicion. The Higher Cartel Court has now confirmed that the house searches were legal, the BWB announced on Wednesday. Between October 18 and 20, 2022, the BWB carried out house searches at companies and an association in the pellets market in Vienna, Carinthia and Tyrol. The reason for this was the suspicion that manufacturers and dealers agreed on prices, divided up customers and jointly restricted and controlled sales. The cartel court had issued the necessary house search warrant on October 6, 2022.
The group of companies concerned, which had lodged an appeal against the house search, had criticized, among other things, that “there were no sufficiently concrete indications of an initial suspicion justifying the house search”, according to the BWB broadcast. In its decision, however, the Higher Cartel Court stated that the Cartel Court had based its search warrant on anonymous reports, statistical data and “numerous (justified) complaints from customers”. The suspicion accepted by the cartel court was therefore not purely speculative, which is why the appeal was not followed.
“Due to the appeal lodged, the secured data was kept sealed by the BWB. The Supreme Court has now created clarity and the data can be evaluated,” said the interim general director of the BWB, Natalie Harsdorf-Borsch, according to the broadcast.
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