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THE COMPETITION COUNCIL IDENTIFIES FOUR SECTORS TO PRIORITISE THIS YEAR

08 01 2025

Energy, defence, retail trade, and digital markets – these are the sectors that the Competition Council has designated as priorities for 2025. The Authority plans not only to monitor developments in these markets but also to take proactive investigative and preventive actions, conduct educational initiatives, and collaborate with other institutions.

"The goal of the Competition Council is to ensure fair competition, which fosters innovation, creates a more favourable environment for businesses, and maximizes benefits for consumers. Focusing additional attention on the identified priority sectors allows the institution to more effectively detect potential competition restrictions and contribute to their elimination in areas that significantly impact the country's economy, national security, and consumer welfare," stated the Chairwoman of the Competition Council, Jolanta Ivanauskienė.

The energy sector remains one of the Competition Council's top priorities, as ensuring fair competition in the face of significant ongoing changes is directly related to the public interests. Particular attention will continue to be paid to the assessment of the competitive conditions and regulatory framework in the renewable energy market. In view of the accelerating development of the infrastructure for charging stations for electric vehicles (EV) in Lithuania and in order to determine whether there are barriers to competition in this area, the Competition Council has completed its monitoring of the EV charging services market, drafted its conclusions and is currently awaiting comments from businesses, institutions and other stakeholders in order to come up with its final conclusions and recommendations. Last year, the Authority also identified one of the most serious competition law infringements in the energy sector, when a company producing heat pumps restricted competition between distributors by fixing the level of resale prices of its products and the level of discounts.

Another priority is the defence sector, which is particularly relevant in the context of recent geopolitical events and is directly linked to national security. Fair competition in this area helps to ensure that the country obtains the goods and services needed at the best possible price and that the quality of the latter meets the required standards. The Authority intends to intensify its cooperation with the Ministry of National Defence, to assess the impact of legislation and draft legislation on competition, and to pay particular attention to public procurement processes in order to prevent possible anti-competitive agreements.

Retail trade has been identified as a sectoral priority for several consecutive years, given its importance to all Lithuanian consumers. Currently, the Competition Council is conducting two investigations into potential violations, initiated on its own initiative: one concerning the actions of companies engaged in the sale of everyday consumer goods, and another concerning the actions of companies involved in beverage production and trade. Moreover, recent institutional practice has highlighted the need to focus on potential vertical agreements in the online space. In 2023, the institution identified a prohibited agreement between a cosmetics manufacturer and its distributors. In 2024, it ruled that the official representative of the "Dr. Ohhira" brand in Lithuania and 19 of its distributors had agreed not to sell food supplements and cosmetics at prices lower than those specified by the supplier and not to offer discounts or promotions to consumers. As a result, e-commerce and potential prohibited agreements in this field will remain under the institution's scrutiny.

The expansion of digital markets and their significance in daily life mean that this sector is becoming increasingly important in the activities of the Competition Council. Starting this year, the institution has been assigned a new function – supervising digital markets to ensure that the Regulation on enhancing the fairness of online intermediation services is properly implemented in Lithuania. In 2023, the Competition Council presented the findings of a joint monitoring of the electronic marketplace sector conducted with Latvian colleagues. In 2024, aiming to educate the business community on competition law issues, the Authority prepared Guidelines on e-commerce, which, among other things, review business practices that may pose risks of restricting competition.

The establishment of sectoral priorities does not automatically imply that the Competition Council will identify infringements or take other significant decisions in these sectors in 2024. In each case, before deciding to act, the Authority will assess whether a particular investigation is consistent with the Competition Council's priority of making a significant contribution to the effective protection of competition and thereby ensuring the highest possible consumer welfare. However, the Authority expects that the increased focus on these sectors will allow it to gather data and information that will be useful for a more detailed assessment of competition conditions not only this year but also in the near future.

Last updated: 08 01 2025