PKA, which runs four pension funds, has been acquitted in a court in the Copenhagen suburb of Lyngby of having broken competition law by collaborating with another provider to make a bid for business.
The case began over five years ago when, jointly with Danica Pension, the PKA entity PKA+ Pension Forsikringsselskab made an offer for the pension scheme of the retail chain then called Dansk Supermarked.
In 2018, Danica said that, following an internal review, it had found the offer probably violated Denmark’s Competition Act, and so informed the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (Konkurrence- og Forbrugerstyrelsen).
The case was then handed over to the fraud squad, and though Danica Pension said it expected to be charged, it also expected to avoid punishment because it had made the report.
Charges against Danica were dropped back in August 2022, but PKA was taken to court, with the hearing starting in August this year.
Jon Johnsen, chief executive officer of the DKK400bn (€53.6bn) PKA, said: “We are happy that the district court has reached the same conclusion as us, namely that we have done nothing wrong and that the offer was within the framework of the law.”
PKA, which manages pension funds mainly in the health and social care sectors, said his firm had never had a desire to limit competition in the pension market.
“On the contrary, we wanted to give the employees of the former Dansk Supermarked a competitive alternative to the pension scheme they already had,” he said.
“We have waited more than five long years to get the court’s word that we have not broken the law,” Johnsen added.
The two personal defendants in the case have also been acquitted, PKA said.
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