“Together with community and private forest owners, the State Forest Administration is working hard on managing climate-related damage to forests and the change in forest structures. We need all resources to save forests and not for a lawsuit filed by a financial group that wants to increase its return,” explains State Secretary Torsten Weil of the Thuringian Ministry of Agriculture.
In addition to Thuringia, the internationally operating, quoted financial group “Burford Capital” has also sued Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia through other Ausgleichsgesellschaften which were established precisely for this purpose. The plaintiff demands € 416 million from Baden-Württemberg, over € 180 million from North Rhine-Westphalia, € 49 million from Hesse and around € 120 million from Rhineland-Palatinate which brings the total to around € 850 million as of September 2020. (See article: Already € 850 million: Another lawsuit over “wood cartel”).
Following a complaint by the sawmill industry, the Bundeskartellamt (German competition authority) conducted an investigation against the four states in the years from 2001 to 2009. It was of the opinion that the centralized log wood marketing of all types of forest property by the State Forest Administrations of these states did not comply with competition law.
