SOLNA, Sweden, March 21, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Comment from NCC's President and Chief Executive Officer Alf Goransson concerning the Swedish Competition Authority's lawsuit regarding asphalt cartels:
"The Swedish Competition Authority's report does not contain any major surprises for NCC. It shows the same pattern as that unveiled by the external investigation commissioned by NCC's Board of Directors immediately after the Competition Authority's dawn raid and which was announced by NCC on January 31, 2002. Although the Competition Authority's report indicates an increased number of violations of the Swedish Competition Act by NCC, compared with the violations revealed by the dawn raid, it is obvious that the new cases are branches of the same subculture that was uncovered by NCC slightly more than a year ago. However, NCC questions a number of the new infringements, for which the factual documentation is rather meager."
"Since NCC's acknowledgment of participation in the asphalt cartel, the Company has launched a powerful action program aimed at ensuring that NCC employees comply with all prevailing rules and regulations. The program includes extensive measures for all NCC Group employees aimed at ensuring compliance with ethical values, as well as training in competition legislation for 1,500 NCC managers. NCC's internal rules and regulations in the field of competition legislation have also been tightened up through the introduction of binding stipulations, including an obligation to report any suspicions of violations of the Competition Act. By implementing these forceful actions, NCC's executive management wants to emphasize that NCC must always compete on the basis of fair play and never try to evade competition."
"At present, we have no comments regarding the penalty to be imposed for violating the competition legislation, since we are now entering a legal process at the Stockholm City Court, which will decide the penalty amount. However, we regard it as positive that the Competition Authority will be utilizing the new legislation, which will result in a reduction in the penalty imposed on NCC. At the same time, we find it distasteful from the viewpoint of respect for the law that another of the companies involved in the cartels has been completely freed from the competition damages penalty simply because one of the central figures in the cartels handled his contacts with the Competition Authority through this company."
For further information, please contact: Ulf Wallin, General Counsel NCC Tel +46 8 585 52147 or +46 70 524 2180 Gisela Lindstrand, Press Relations Manager NCC AB Tel +46 8 585 52346 or +46 70 392 9500
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