ALYTUS MUNICIPALITY SUSPECTED OF GRANTING PRIVILEDGES TO LITESKO

Competition Council sent a statement of objections to Alytus Municipality (Municipality) suspected of adopting decisions that may have restricted competition and limited consumers’ choice. Municipality extended the term of modernisation of heat supply networks and property lease agreement signed with Litesko till the year 2026 without a competitive procedure. Municipality also changed the competition requirements regarding the transfer of additional property and investments for the benefit of Litesko.

According to the Council‘s experts, having changed publicly announced terms and conditions of competition and, afterwards, having signed the agreement with Litesko, the Municipality could have discriminated other undertakings willing to participate in the process of the heat sector‘s modernisation in Alytus. Hence, the aforementioned municipal decisions could have breached Article 4 of the Law on Competition.

The statement of objections suggested the Municipality to repeal the mentioned municipal decisions and, thus, eliminate the breach.