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By the ruling of 15 June 2015 the extended panel of judges of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania approved the conclusions of the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter – the Competition Council) on the infringements of the Law on Competition of the Republic of Lithuania in the municipal waste sector of the municipalities of Klaipėda and Šiauliai districts.

It has been assessed whether the Competition Council acknowledged reasonably in the ruling of 24 December 2008 that the municipalities of Klaipėda and Šiauliai districts, by entrusting to perform the functions of recovery and disposal of municipal waste to regional waste management centres established by the aforementioned municipalities, granted a privilege to these centres, did not provide a competitive playing field for other operators to provide the aforementioned services and thereby infringed the requirements of the Law on Competition.

SACL underlined that when choosing how to organise the provision of services of recovery and disposal of municipal waste, municipalities must promote private operators’ initiative and assess in particular business opportunities of these operators in the market. To entrust the provision of services for recovery and disposal of municipal waste to an undertaking established by one or several municipalities is possible only in exceptional cases where it is not possible, for objective reasons, to ensure the continuity of supply of such services, their good quality and accessibility. In the present case, as the extended panel of judges pointed out, when organising the provision of services of the municipal waste recovery and disposal, municipalities should have organised and conducted a competition or other competitive procedure.

Having considered the circumstances of the case, the extended panel of judges of SACL held that the decisions of municipalities has prevented other operators from offering their services, thereby eliminating opportunities to compete (rival) in a competitive level playing field for the rights to operate regional waste management system infrastructures. SACL also stressed that the municipalities did not justify the presence of exceptional, objective circumstances that led to the necessity of entrusting regional waste management centres to provide services of the municipal waste recovery and disposal without any prior competitive tendering or other competitive procedure.

In accordance with the reasons mentioned, the applicants’ appeals which disputed the ruling of the Competition Council were rejected by the extended panel of judges of the Court.

For more information see the website of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania www.lvat.lt Case No A-1581-502-2015. Please indicate the source of information when quoting or otherwise using the latter material.