Successfully represented the bankrupt national air carriage company

Our Dispute Resolution team had successfully represented the bankrupt Lithuanian national air carriage company flyLAL before Vilnius regional court, in which the bankrupt air carriage company flyLAL claimed a huge amount of damages (over 57.4 million EUR) caused by the Air Baltic Corporation and Riga International Airport.

The factual basis of the claim is that Air Baltic Corporation entered into anticompetitive agreements with Riga International Airport, as the benefit of which it received considerable rebates enabling the company to engage in predatory pricing. As a result, flyLAL had to withdraw from the market.

In this complex private enforcement litigation, the respondents tried to abolish interim measures despite the preliminary ruling of the European Court of Justice that had been adopted on 23 October 2014, which allowed to pursue seizure of real estate and other assets and property rights in the amount approaching 58 million euros, stating that interim measures must be recognized and enforced in Latvia in accordance with the Brussels I regulation.

Vilnius regional court has dismissed these requests of the respondents and upheld the seizure of the respondents’ property in the amount of 57.4 million EUR. The decision of the Vilnius district court may be appealed to the Court of Appeal of Lithuania.