EESTI MEEDIA PROPERLY IMPLEMENTED SET OBLIGATIONS

The Lithuanian competition authority Konkurencijos taryba acknowledged that the Estonian company Eesti Meedia, which did not receive the clearance of the acquisition of 100 per cent of AllePAL shares and which was obliged to take actions re-establishing the state prior to the merger or eliminating the identified competition concerns, properly implemented obligations set by Konkurencijos taryba.

Konkurencijos taryba collected and analysed the data related to the implementation of the set obligations and, according to information available to it, acknowledged that Eesti Meedia properly implemented obligations – transferred part of its classified ads websites, i.e. autogidas.lt, domoplius.lt ir plius.lt, to the unrelated undertaking Vertikali medija.

Having suspected that the acquisition of AllePAL by Eesti Meedia might have created or strengthened a dominant position or restricted competition in the relevant markets, Konkurencijos taryba obliged the merging parties to submit a merger notification. Having examined the notification, Konkurencijos taryba found that the merger implemented in 2014 eliminated competition among the classified ads websites and increased  the prices of classified ads for real estate and vehicles.

By prohibiting the merger in 2016 Konkurencijos taryba obliged Eesti Meedia to take actions in order to re-establish the state prior to the merger or eliminate the identified competition concerns.