Law on Amendment and Supplement to the Competition Law of the Republic of Lithuania
- Lithuania
- 06/30/2009
- Raidla Lejins & Norcous
On 9 April 2009, the Seimas adopted the Law on Amendment and Supplement to the Competition Law of the Republic of Lithuania (the “Law”). The Law is adopted to create legal premises for more efficient protection of fair competition. This Law enforces the Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty (the “Regulation No 1/2003”).
The Law says that particular concentration performance conditions and commitments may be established not only for the purpose of prevention of creation or strengthening of a dominant position (as was till now), but also seeking to avoid too severe restrictions of competition on a relevant market.
The Law also establishes the right of the Competition Council to adopt confidential resolutions. If the Competition Council did not have the right to keep resolutions on initiation of investigation confidential for a certain time, the Competition Council’s investigations, in particular as regards the most severe violations of competition (prohibited agreements and abuse of dominance), were inefficient in the sense of evidence collection, because the main evidence of such violations are located at the premises used by business entities and can be easily destroyed if information of intended investigation is known in advance.
Regulation No 1/2003 grants the European Commission extensive authority when performing the duties imposed thereon by this Regulation. The Commission is vested with the right to seal any business premises and books and documents for the period and to the extent which might be necessary for inspection, as well as the right to carry out inspections not only at the premises used by a business entity, but also in private places of residence of employees of the business entity. Taking into consideration such provisions of Regulation No 1/2003 and the fact that investigations by the Competition Council are becoming more complicated and identification of violation of competition rules is becoming more difficult, relevant rights of authorized officers of the Competition Council are also established in the Competition Law, according to which private places of residence may be inspected only if there is suspicion of breach of Articles 5 or 9 of the Competition Law or Articles 81 or 82 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
