Successfully represented the bankrupt Lithuanian national air carriage company

Motieka & Audzevičius has successfully represented the bankrupt Lithuanian national air carriage company flyLAL in a dispute where the company claims damages caused by „Air Baltic Corporation“ and Riga International Airport.

The factual basis of the claim is that „Air Baltic Corporation“ has entered into anticompetitive agreements with the Riga International Airport, as a consequence receiving enormous rebates which enabled „Air Baltic Corporation“ to engage in predatory pricing and anticompetitive strategies against flyLAL. As a result, the air carriage company flyLAL had to withdraw from relevant markets.

Vilnius regional court upheld flyLAL’s claim and issued respondent “Air Baltic Corporation” to pay flyLAL over 16 million EUR in damages and procedural interest. The court issued more than 90 pages of decision, underlining the complexity of the case, specifically the first-in-a-kind violation of TFEU 101 and 102 articles and Law on competition of Lithuania by respondents. The case has the potential of laying main cornerstones in jurisprudence related to various perspectives of private competition enforcement.

The decision of the first instance court could be appealed to the Court of the appeal of Lithuania in 30 days.