ŠVENČIONYS CITY MUNICIPALITY ADMITTED HAVING ORGANISED PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICES IMPROPERLY

The Competition Council found that Švenčionys District Municipality (further - the Municipality) authorised Svirka to provide public transport services on suburban regular passenger routes without a competitive procedure and, thus, breached Article 4 of the Law on Competition.

In 2013, the Municipality granted Svirka exclusive rights to provide public transport services on suburban regular passenger routes till 2018 without a competitive procedure. Hence, the Municipality privileged Svirka and discriminated against other existing and potential market participants. According to the Council‘s experts, other undertakings were deprived of opportunity to enter the market for the whole term of the agreement. The Municipality and Svirka agreed with the conclusions of the Council and promised to terminate the agreement.

The Council obligated the Municipality to repeal competition-restricting decisions within 6 months after the Council’s decision is published on the authority’s website.