Lithuania: 2019 in review: enforcement and sanctioning trends in antitrust

ENRecently the Lithuanian Competition Council presented its annual report for 2019. Last year was not very productive for the Council in terms of antitrust investigations. However, it brought some noteworthy enforcement tendencies. The Council actively applied individual sanctions and the doctrine of single economic entity invoking joint liability, also, it imposed the first fine for obstructing the investigation. Furthermore, Lithuania is close to fully transposing the ECN+ Directive into national laws; thus, the competition authority acquired new powers and functions. The Council updated the Explanations concerning the definition of relevant market and the assessment of a dominant position. The enforcement tendencies show, and legislative amendments support, the Council’s approach to stricter antitrust enforcement, but its practices are actively challenged in courts by undertakings.