THE COURT HAS ACKNOWLEDGED: THE COMPETITION COUNCIL HAD CORRECTLY ASSESSED THE IMPACT OF THE PROHIBITED ACTIONS BY THE LITHUANIAN CHAMBER OF AUDITORS UPON COMPETITION

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania passed the final and unappealable ruling in the case on the appeal of the Lithuanian Chamber of Auditors (LCA) to repeal the resolution of the Competition Council.

The Resolution of 21 June 2007 of the Competition Council acknowledged actions of the Lithuanian Chamber of Auditors as infringing the requirements of Article 5(1)(1) of the Law on Competition of the Republic of Lithuania. The relevant paragraph of the Law prohibits any agreements to directly or indirectly fix prices of certain goods or other conditions of purchase and sale. Based on the findings of the investigation the LCA had infringed the requirements in question by submitting the coordinated minimum prices of audit services, minimum standard labour costs and the minimum hourly rates. The fee for the audit services, however, should be determined according to the agreement between the auditor and the managers of the auditee thus promoting competition among auditors. The relevant legislation does not provide for any right or obligation on the part of the LCA in any way to regulate or otherwise affect the rates or other terms of the audit service provision in any way restricting competition among the undertakings providing audit services. For this infringement of Article 5 of the Law on Competition the LCA was subjected to a fine of LTL 30,000.

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, having considered the circumstances related to the determination of the duration of the infringement in the preceding ruling of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court reduced the amount of the fine imposed by the Competition Council. The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania reduced the fine upon the LCA for the infringement of Article 5 of the Law on Competition to LTL 27,500.