Victory in 40 million EUR dispute regarding the tender of Liepkalnis intersection

Motieka & Audzevičius Dispute Resolution team has represented leading road construction company Panevėžio keliai in several high-profile and politically sensitive cases against Vilnius city municipality administration.

Initiated civil cases were related to infringements in the 40 million EUR tender procedures for reconstruction works of one of the major intersections in Vilnius city. Our client Panevėžio keliai sought annulment of the contracting authority’s (Vilnius city municipality administration’s) decisions (including rejection of our client’s proposal and selection of the winning one), a fresh evaluation of the bids, and the exclusion of the tender bid winner on the ground that it had submitted false (misrepresented) information on conformity to the requirements and had failed to prove that truthful.

The courts of first and second instances have rejected our client’s claims both in the proceedings regarding the rejection of our client’s proposal and the exclusion of the tender bid winner. However, after consolidating separate cases, the Supreme Court of Lithuania supported our team’s arguments and annulled the lower courts‘ judgments.

Although the Court of Cassation declared that the public contract had been awarded unlawfully, due to disproportionate effects that would arise if the public contract were nullified, imposed an alternative sanction to the contracting authority (Vilnius city municipality administration)– an unprecedented 0.5 million EUR fine.

Several precedents regarding the application of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Public Procurement were established. Therefore, the legal decision in this consolidated case will be of high importance to further case law.