THE GOVERNMENT APPROVED THE AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW ON COMPETITION

The Government of the Republic of Lithuanian approved the draft Law on the Amendment of Articles 1, 3, 4, 10, 13, 14, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 30, 31, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 and the Annex of the Law on Competition of the Republic of Lithuania and shall submit the draft Law to the Seimas for consideration.

The draft Law on the Amendment of the Law on Competition has been drafted with a view to enhancing the efficiency of the investigation of the infringements of the Law on Competition and the European competition rules the supervision of the enforcement of which has been assigned to the Competition Council, and ensuring the legal precondition for a more efficient protection of fair competition.

The principal amendments as proposed in the draft legislation are designed to empower the Competition Council to pass confidential resolutions that would facilitate the process of evidence collection and extend the rights of the authorised officers of the Competition Council.

The draft Law proposes to provide for a more detailed regulation of the right of entities to propose the undertakings by themselves, where subject to the approval of such undertakings by the Competition Council the investigation would be terminated. For example, such entities could be entitled to undertake to perform certain actions eliminating the alleged infringement, while the current Law does not provide for such possibility.

The draft Law provides for a possibility to impose sanctions for the infringements of the Law on Competition, such as selling of the entity or part thereof, its assets, or part of its assets, etc. Furthermore, the draft Law proposes to approve the list of circumstances alleviating the infringements of the Law on Competition.

The draft Law also sought elaboration of some provisions of the Law on Competition that have been causing a degree of uncertainty in their practical enforcement.