Motieka & Audzevicius has successfully represented flyLAL in a dispute against Air Baltic Corporation involving private competition enforcement in Lithuania.
According to Motieka & Audzevicius, in 2016, the Vilnius regional court upheld flyLAL’s claim that Air Baltic Corporation had entered into anticompetitive agreements with Riga International Airport and both engaged in predatory pricing and anticompetitive strategies against flyLAL, "and ordered Air Baltic Corporation to pay flyLAL over EUR 16 million in damages and procedural interest. The court issued a decision of more than 90 pages, underlining the complexity of the case, specifically the first of its kind violation of TFEU articles 101 and 102 and the Lithuania’s competition law by the respondents."
The Court of Appeals had referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union in order to answer the question of whether Lithuanian Courts have jurisdiction (under Brussels I Regulation) in the case at hand. The European Court of Justice confirmed flyLAL’s right to claim damages of over EUR 54.7million from AirBaltic and RIX in Lithuania.
According to the firm, "the ECJ provided clear guidance to the Court of Appeals confirming, inter alia, that the 'damage' under Brussels I occurred in Vilnius, Lithuania. Consequently, the Court of Appeals has the right to uphold the jurisdiction of Lithuanian court to hear the dispute."
The Motieka & Audzevicius team consisted of Partner Ramunas Audzevicius and Associates Karolis Vaicekauskas and Henrikas Stelmokaitis.
