Successfully represented the bankrupt national airlines in a private enforcement case

Our Dispute Resolution team successfully represented the interests of the bankrupt Lithuanian national airline company flyLAL in the Supreme Court of Lithuania. The client claimed for damages caused by airBaltic and Riga International Airport due to anticompetitive actions (prohibited agreements (Article 101 of TFEU) and abuse of dominant position (Article 102 of TFEU).

The Supreme Court of Lithuania fully annulled the decision made by the Court of Appeals (under which flyLAL‘s claim was dismissed) and decided to refer the case back to the Lithuanian Court of Appeal for reconsideration.

The Court of Cassation has stated that that the part of flyLAL’s claim for damages in connection with the prohibited agreement between respondents has not been properly investigated and examined. The Court of Cassation also found that the Court of Appeal had improperly applied the rules on abuse of a dominant position and had failed to properly assess airBaltic’s pricing compliance with Article 102 of TFEU, leading to an incorrect assessment and examination of the claim for damages in connection with the infringement of Article 102 of TFEU.

It should be noted that the court of the first instance had, by the decision of 27 January 2017, established the anticompetitive actions of both defendants and had awarded more than EUR 16 million in damages and procedural interest in favor of flyLAL.