TENDER REQUIREMENT INCONSISTENT WITH THE LAW ON COMPETITION

The Competition Council has met and considered issue on consistency of terms and conditions of tender of selection of public municipal waste processing provider, approved by the Council of Vilnius City Municipality with the requirements of Article 4 of the Law on Competition. A decision was taken holding that subsection 11.9 of terms and conditions of tender of selection of public municipal waste processing provider approved by resolution of the Council of Vilnius City Municipality of 14 February 2007 No 1-1537 was, to the extent it established that any waste processor, wishing to provide municipal waste processing services (including those of collection, transport and transfer for use or disposal) in the territory of Vilnius City Municipality shall hold licence on processing of hazardous waste, inconsistent with requirements of Article 4 of the Law on Competition.

The investigation was initiated on the basis of complaint by UAB Švara visiems. The investigation revealed that requirement prescribed by the terms and conditions of competition of selection of public municipal waste processing provider  to hold licence on processing of hazardous waste was discriminating with respect to economic entities that did not hold licence aforesaid. No ground for interrelation of processing of regular waste with processing of hazardous one was found; no laws require every waste processor to hold licence on processing of hazardous waste, as the said activity is subject to special requirements. Provision to hold the above licence prevents the activity of other economic entities in Vilnius.

The untenable nature of requirement is further supported by other circumstances found during investigation. E.g., prior to the competition, waste in Vilnius was processed, inter alia, by economic entities holding no licence on processing of hazardous waste. Foreign economic entities were offered opportunity to obtain licence on processing of hazardous waste at a later date, and were authorised to act without it until the said date. Furthermore, no possibility to process hazardous waste by employing services of other economic entities, processing hazardous waste was provided. The municipality was also found to effectively act contrary to the requirement prescribed; it executed contracts with some waste processors holding no licence on processing of hazardous waste.

Given that contracts by the municipality and public municipal waste processing service providers are signed for a term of 8 years, this is the term where other economic entities can face potential restriction to enter relative market and act in the same.