RAUTAKIRJA OY SANCTIONED BY THE COMPETITION COUNCIL

The Competition Council considered the matters related to the actions by Rautakirja OY in fulfilling by the company the mandatory obligations and conditions concerning the appointment and the performance of the observer as established by the Resolution of the Competition Council of 29 December 2007. It was established that Rautakirja OY having failed, within the terms and the time limits fixed by the Competition Council to submit a candidature for the observer and the draft agreement with the observer, or the observer‘s report infringed the obligations and the terms for the implementation of the concentration deal imposed upon the company in connection to the authorisation to acquire a 100 percent holding in Impress Teva, UAB. For this infringement Rautakirja OY was subjected by the Competition Council to a fine in the amount of LTL 70,000.

The obligations and the conditions in relation to the concentration deal established by the resolution of the Competition Council are binding upon the participants of the concentration deal. Any failure to comply is considered to constitute an infringement of the Law on Competition.

In December 2007, in connection to the issue of the authorisation to Rautakirja OY to acquire a 100 percent holding in Impress Teva, UAB the Competition Council established the terms and conditions attached to the concentration deal to be implemented with a view to controlling actions of Rautakirja OY in the wholesale publications distribution market and ensuring the operations in the market in observance of competition rules. The independent observer – KPMG Baltics, UAB was assigned a supervisory function to facilitate an efficient fulfilment of the obligations and expedient resolution of any disputes between the publishers, publishing houses, publication distributors and Impress Teva, UAB and/or the Vilnius agency of Lietuvos spauda, UAB.