The U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed Smurfit Westrock on Sept. 22, according to a securities filing the company released Wednesday morning. This stems from a grand jury investigation in the Northern District of Illinois regarding the pricing and sale of containerboard and related products.
Smurfit Westrock said in the filing that it’s “fully cooperating” with the investigation and “believes that its business practices and those of its subsidiaries have been conducted in compliance with U.S. antitrust laws.”
“While the Company is currently unable to determine the ultimate outcome of these matters or estimate the range of potential loss due to the early stage of these proceedings, it is possible that an adverse outcome could have a material impact on its financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows,” the document says.
Smurfit Westrock did not respond to a request for comments by publication time.
Typically when a grand jury is involved, prosecutors have some evidence of an agreement among competitors, according to a Wednesday memo from Adam Josephson, packaging industry analyst and founder of Sakonnet Research. His didn’t find other instances of DOJ price-fixing prosecution related to U.S. containerboard producers in recent decades.
Smurfit Westrock also noted in the securities filing that it’s still part of an ongoing class-action containerboard price-fixing lawsuit, which is also playing out in the Northern District of Illinois. The suit was filed in July 2025 and accused producers — including Cascades, International Paper, Packaging Corporation of America and others — of creating a “cartel” and engaging in price collusion to boost profits at the expense of customers.
Smurfit Westrock was dismissed from that lawsuit in October 2025, presumably because the company did not exist during the time period in question; the company formed via Smurfit Kappa’s acquisition of WestRock in 2024. Those two subsidiaries are still included in the price-fixing lawsuit.
In September, a judge denied defendants’ motions to dismiss the case. Judge Mary M. Rowland suggested in her filing that there’s enough evidence of a potential conspiracy to warrant further exploration of the claims in a lawsuit.
Last week, Smurfit Kappa and WestRock were among the defendants that filed responses. They denied “any and all allegations of wrongdoing.” The filing again called for the case to be dismissed and requested legal fee reimbursement.
“The Company believes that it has substantial defenses and intends to vigorously defend against the lawsuit,” says Wednesday’s securities filing.
Further related to pricing, the securities filing echoed what executives have said on earnings calls: inflation costs are “unprecedented” this year, and these costs are passed to customers via product price increases. However, “these clauses may not in all cases be effective to offset rising costs,” according to the securities filing.
It notes there’s typically a three- to six-month lag in the time the company’s input costs increase and the realization of higher customer pricing. “There can be no assurance that announced price increases will be fully realized, that they will be realized within the time frames we expect, or that they will be sufficient to offset increases in our costs,” the document says.
Smurfit Westrock is among the major containerboard producers that introduced three rounds of price hikes this year. The third wave, in particular, has been met with widespread pushback, including from AICC, The Independent Packaging Association. Many view the increases as unjustified, especially amid lagging demand, producers downgrading their financial guidance, and other economic factors. Containerboard prices to-date in 2026 are approximately 20% higher than last year.
