THREE PERSONS RESTRICTED OF THE RIGHT TO OCCUPY MANAGERIAL POSITIONS

The Competition Council informed the Centre of Registers, which is responsible for administering the Register of Legal Entities, that Vilnius Regional Administrative Court restricted the right of Vitalijus Mukovozas, Manager of Baltic Transport Service, Andrejus Falevičius, Manager of Convertus and Gediminas Ivanauskas, Manager of Gedarta to occupy managerial positions in the public or private sector for four years.

The aforementioned persons did not appeal the Court’s decision satisfying the Competition Council’s request to impose sanctions on the managers of cartel firms. Having conducted the investigation the Council found that in 2011 and 2012 the firms coordinated their actions by agreeing in advance who will win the public procurements for the purchase of construction works, and that the remaining bidders only imitated competition.

The Court took into consideration that the companies Baltic Transport Service, Convertus and Gedarta committed one of the most serious competition law infringements and the managers of the firms were involved in collusive conduct, thus their right to occupy managerial positions was restricted for four years.

The Court’s decision, which entered into force on May 1, was the first such decision imposing personal liability on the cartel participants in the Lithuanian case law. In 2017 the Council referred to the Court asking to impose sanctions on other five managers of the companies for their involvement in competition law breaches.

The Law on Competition stipulates that for the involvement in a prohibited agreement concluded between competitors or in the abuse of a dominant position, the manager of an undertaking may be restricted of the right to be the manager of a public and (or) private legal person, or a member of the collegial supervisory and (or) governing body of a public and (or) private legal person for a period of three to five years. Additionally, a fine of up to almost EUR 14,500 may be imposed as well.