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From 1 January, 2025 the Competition Council supervises the implementation in Lithuania of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services.

The Regulation aims to ensure transparency, fairness and effective remedies for business users of online intermediation services and corporate websites users in relation to online search engines. Thus, the Competition Council's monitoring of the implementation of the Regulation will aim to ensure that the internet ecosystem is fair and transparent, where online intermediation service providers and search engine operators behave responsibly.

Pursuant to the Law on Supervision of Online Intermediation Services and Online Search Engines of the Republic of Lithuania, the Competition Council supervises the compliance of providers of online intermediation services and online search engine services ("providers") with the requirements of the Regulation, regardless of the providers' place of establishment or residence, if:

  1. they provide or offer their services to business users and corporate websites users whose place of establishment or residence is in the Republic of Lithuania; and
  2. those business users and corporate websites users offer goods or services to consumers located in the Republic of Lithuania through the providers' services.  

The following individuals may apply to the Competition Council with a request to initiate an investigation into an infringement of the Regulation:

  • business users of online intermediation services;
  • corporate websites users;
  • organisations, associations and public bodies established in the European Union and representing undertakings listed above.

They may also defend their rights and legitimate interests before national courts.

The Regulation applies to:

  1. Providers of online intermediation services that provide information society services, which:
  • enable business users to offer goods or services to consumers in order to facilitate direct transactions between those business users and consumers, irrespective of where those transactions are ultimately concluded;
  • are provided to business users based on a contractual relationship between that service provider and the business users who offer goods or services to consumers.
  1. Online search engines.

The requirements of the Regulation can be divided into the following main categories:

  • The Regulation lays down certain rules for the terms and conditions of contracts between online intermediation service providers and business users, for example, the terms and conditions of the contract must be easily accessible, comprehensive, transparent and drafted in simple and comprehensible language.
  • The identity of the business users must be clearly visible on the online intermediation platform.
  • Business users must be given adequate and prior notice of the termination of intermediation services.
  • The service provider shall provide in advance a description of the key parameters determining the ranking and explain why these key parameters are relatively significant compared to other parameters.
  • The provider of online intermediation services must describe in their terms the nature of the ancillary goods or services offered and outline the conditions under which business users may offer their own ancillary goods and services through those online intermediation services.
  • The service provider must describe all cases where different conditions are or may be applied to the goods or services, they (or their affiliated entities) offer compared to those offered by business users.
  • The provider of online intermediation services must include in their terms and conditions information regarding what access to personal data or other data is granted to business users for the purposes of using online intermediation services, such as access to ratings or reviews.
  • Any restrictions applied to business users must be clearly described in the terms and conditions if they decide to offer the same goods or services on platforms other than those of the online intermediation service provider or on their own website.
  • The requirements for internal complaint-handling systems and mediation apply only to providers of online intermediation services that are medium-sized or large enterprises.
  • Search engines are subject only to the requirements concerning the ranking of search results and transparency when applying different conditions.

If the Competition Council finds an infringement of the Regulation, it has the right to impose the following measures on the persons who have committed the infringement:

  • issue binding obligations to cease unlawful activities or unlawful acts, to comply with a legal obligation, or to take other specific actions to remedy the consequences of the infringement, as well as to set deadlines and other conditions for the compliance with such obligations.
  • impose a fine ranging from EUR 300 to EUR 15 000.
Last updated: 03 01 2025