COMPETITION COUNCIL SUSPECTS KAUNAS CITY MUNICIPALITY OF GRANTING PRIVILEDGES TO MUNICIPAL COMPANY

Competition Council sent a statement of objections to Kaunas City Municipality suspected of restricting competition. The Municipality authorised a municipal company Kapinių priežiūra to provide services of Kaunas city cemetery maintenance and organisation of burial services without a competitive procedure.

The Council opened an investigation having received a notice about the exclusive rights the Municipality granted to Kapinių priežiūra. Kaunas City Municipality authorised the municipal company to provide services of cemetery maintenance, grave digging, initial body transportation and storage in Kaunas city without a competitive procedure and, thus, discriminated other five companies able to provide the relevant services. According to the preliminary evaluation of the Council’s experts, such municipal decision breached Article 4 of the Law on Competition.

The statement of objections suggested the Municipality to repeal competition-restricting decision and, thus, eliminate the breach.