The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday announced that it had maintained an EU antitrust fine handed out to Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (LGT) six years ago for removing a train track running to Latvia, the Reuters news agency reported.
In 2008, Poland's PKN Orlen planned to reroute freight from its refinery at Mažeikiai in northwestern Lithuania to the Latvian port of Ventspils via a 19km rail line from Mažeikiai to Renge in Latvia using the services of another operator.
However, in October that year, LGT dismantled the cross-border line forcing PKN Orlen to use a much longer route via Joniškis to reach Latvia.
In 2017, the European Commission fined the Lithuanian railway company nearly EUR 28 million for breaching EU competition law by removing the track.
LGT challenged the decision and convinced a lower court to cut the fine to some EUR 20 million, after which the case went to the CJE, Reuters reported.
"The Court of Justice upholds the judgment of the General Court imposing a fine of approximately EUR 20 million on the Lithuanian national rail company," CJEU judges said on Thursday, as quoted by Reuters.
"The Commission conducted a comprehensive analysis which makes it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the removal of railway infrastructure was capable of having anti-competitive effects," the CJEU also said.
The Mažeikiai-Renge line officially reopened in February 2020, twelve years after Lithuania unilaterally decided to close the cross-border link.
The railroad cost nearly EUR 10 million to restore.
(mo/gs)
Source: Reuters