COMPETITION COUNCIL REOPENS INVESTIGATION INTO AGREEMENTS WITHIN CASH HANDLING MARKET

On April 22, the Competition Council (the KT) reopened the investigation into agreements within cash handling market. It was suspected that the mentioned agreements had failed to comply with the requirements of Article 5 of the Law on Competition and Article 101 of TFEU.

On 8 April, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (the Court) confirmed that the agreements concluded between UAB G4S Lietuva (G4S) and the banks, namely, AB SEB bank (SEB), Swedbank, AB (Swedbank) and AB DNB bank (DNB), restricted competition within the cash handling market and limited the possibilities of bank clients to choose the provider of cash-in-transit services. However, the Court annulled the fines imposed on the banks by the KT on 20 December 2012. The Court ruled that the banks were not at fault for the restrictions of competition created by the concluded agreements.

The Court held that the KT had not properly evaluated the commitments proposed by G4S and, therefore, referred the relevant part of the case back to the KT for further investigation.

With regard to the Court’s ruling, the KT reopened the investigation into agreements within cash handling market. During the investigation the KT’s experts will evaluate whether G4S commitments comply with the requirements of the Law on Competition.