SUPREME ADMINISTRATIVE COURT CONFIRMS THAT THERE ARE NO GROUNDS TO SUSPECT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST VEHICLE IMPORTERS

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (the Court) upheld the Competition Council‘s (the KT) decision not to open an investigation on a complaint received from the Lithuanian auto-entrepreneurs association on 30 April 2012. On 12 November 2012, the KT decided not to open an investigation on the orders regulating requirements for vehicle technical compliance. The mentioned orders were issued by the Minister of Transport and Communications and the Head of the State Road Transport Inspectorate under the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The orders set different requirements to be imposed on new vehicles produced for the EU market and other vehicles. According to the Lithuanian auto-entrepreneurs association, as a result of the mentioned orders the prices of the new vehicles for the EU market increased and, thus, importers of the new vehicles were discriminated as compared to other importers.

The Court evaluated all the circumstances and upheld the KT‘s refusal to open an investigation having not found enough data allowing to suspect an infringement of Article 4 of the Law on Competition.