Annual Report 2006

FOREWORD
Session of the Competition Council (on the left): Jonas Rasimavičius, Sigitas Cemnolonskis, Rimantas Stanikūnas, Vytautas Kavaliauskas
Picture by BFL
Valdas Adamkus, the President of the Republic of Lithuania, and Rimantas Stanikūnas, the Chairman of the Competition Council
Picture by Dž. Barysaitė
Strengthening of competition leads to
improvement of people‘s welfare – this
could in brief represent the key objective
of the Competition Council of the Republic
of Lithuania. The Annual Report 2006
represents in most general terms an
overview of the Competition Council’s
activities in pursuing this objective through
the enforcement of the national competition
policy and the oversight of the European
Union rules.
Within the competence and the tasks
assigned to it to protect the freedom of
fair competition the Competition Council
continued in its efforts to monitor the
enforcement of the provisions of the Law
on Competition and accruing its experience
in the direct application of Articles 81 and
82 of the Treaty establishing the European
Community. Consistent cooperation
within the European Competition Network
facilitated the institution in an efficient
exchange of information and a successful
completion of complex and large-scale
investigations. We primarily focused our
efforts upon disclosing cartel agreements
as such agreements are particularly
detrimental to consumers of both individual
countries, and the single EU market. In
order to more efficiently detect and clear
up cartel agreements among competitors
in 2006 the Cartel Division was established.
The specialists working in the Cartel
Division have been targeting their efforts
to ensure early detection of prohibited
agreements and their prevention. Despite
considerable difficulties in detecting
cartels, and identifying related direct and
indirect evidence, in 2006 the specialists
of the Competition Council successfully
completed two investigations of such
prohibited agreements, and progressed with
several others previously launched.
Every year, in view of the further
development of competition, the
Competition Council is being assigned
new tasks and meeting new challenges: the
enlarged markets and the enhanced activity
of economic entities urged a more efficient
and flexible application of the rules of
competition law and further improvement
in the quality of investigations. Only
competitive and facilitating business
environment may be beneficial to both
businessmen and consumers, and meet the
interests of both sides. Therefore, seeking
to implement the competition policy and
further strengthen competition culture
the Competition Council was exercising
not only the powers conferred to it to
detect the infringements and impose
sanctions, but also was employing a range
of measures instrumental in the assessment
of the competition environment and in the
simulations of the situation in individual
markets. The long-term market research,
analysis of draft legal acts, development
of cooperation with foreign competition
authorities, and explanatory work effectively
facilitated the Competition Council in
pursuing its fundamental goals.
The Annual Report 2006 represents a
comprehensive summary of the activity
of the Competition Council covering its
achievements in enforcing EC guidelines and
regulations, supervising the implementation
of the provisions of the Law on Competition
and the Law on Advertising, coordinating
State aid, defending its resolutions in courts,
and developing international and public
relations among other things.
Publicity of our activity enables us to
operate with confidence and independently.
The Competition Council on a regular
basis informed the public of decisions and
resolutions passed thereby and the high
qualification of the authority specialists
enabled to ensure that even large-scale
investigations are being conducted
and completed within the established
timeframe and up to the required quality.
All resolutions of the Competition Council
passed on a collegial basis having heard
the explanations and arguments of the
interested parties what ensures the overall
objectivity and the unbiased character of
the decision making process.
Judicial rulings contributed to gain
experience in qualifying the infringements
of the law and imposing the appropriate
sanctions. Judicial practice yielded tangibly
beneficial results in terms of a more efficient
implementation of competition policy, and
efforts to eradicate unfair competition.
In 2007, the Competition Council will
further continue the enforcement of
competition policy while applying the
Law on Competition and its forthcoming
amendments and the requirements of the
EU law in the pursuit of its fundamental
objective to stimulate the development
of the national economy and benefit the
Lithuanian consumers.
Rimantas Stanikūnas
Chairman of the Competition Council