Lithuanian Railways Fined €28m for Hindering Competition

The European Commission has fined Lithuanian Railways (Lietuvos geležinkeliai) an amount of €27.87 million for hindering competition on the rail freight market, in breach of EU antitrust rules, by removing a rail track connecting Lithuania and Latvia.

Lithuanian Railways
Lithuanian Railways © Schnitzel_bank (license)

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy said:

“Lithuanian Railways used its control over the national rail infrastructure to penalise competitors in the rail transport sector. The European Union needs a well-functioning rail freight market. It is unacceptable and unprecedented that a company dismantles a public rail infrastructure to protect itself from competition.”

Lithuanian Railways

Lithuanian Railways is the incumbent state-owned rail company in Lithuania. The company is vertically integrated, meaning that it is responsible for both railway infrastructure and rail transport.

AB Orlen Lietuva (“Orlen”) is a fully owned subsidiary of PKN Orlen, a Polish oil company.

In 2008, Orlen, a major commercial customer of Lithuanian Railways, considered redirecting its freight from Lithuania to Latvia by using the services of another rail operator. In October 2008, Lithuanian Railways dismantled a 19km long section of track connecting Lithuania and Latvia, close to Orlen’s refinery. The removal of the track meant that Orlen would need to use a much longer route to reach Latvia. Since then the dismantled track has not been rebuilt.

Lithuanian Railways
Lithuanian Railways removed rail track to block competition © EC

Commission’s Investigation

The Commission’s investigation found that these actions hindered competition on the rail freight market by preventing a major customer of Lithuanian Railways from using the services of another rail operator. Lithuanian Railways failed to show any objective justification for the removal of the track. Such behaviour is in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.

Rail Freight Market

The EU’s rail freight market was liberalised in 2007. Since then, the Commission has been working to complete the single market for rail services, including by ensuring the independent management of rail infrastructure and fostering investment in tracks that interconnect Member States. In this context, the enforcement of EU competition rules is important to ensure that regulatory barriers are not replaced by anti-competitive behaviour of dominant rail companies that would prevent the EU from achieving its ultimate goals for rail transport.

Fines

The fines were set on the basis of the Commission’s 2006 Guidelines on fines (see press release and MEMO). Regarding the level of the fine, the Commission took into account, in particular, the value of sales relating to the infringement, the gravity of the infringement and its duration.

In addition to imposing a fine, the Commission’s Decision requires Lithuanian Railways to bring the infringement to an end and refrain from any measure that has the same or an equivalent object or effect.

Original article © The European Commission.

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