Personal liability of managers of undertakings for infringements of competition law in the Republic of Lithuania: the sanctions regime from the perspective of the principle of legal certainty

• Authors: Raimundas Moisejevas , Justina Nasutavičienė , Andrius Puksas

Abstracts

FR

Cet article se concentre sur la responsabilité personnelle des dirigeants d’entreprise pour les infractions au droit de la concurrence. Cet article commence par l’examen du régime de sanction des dirigeants d’entreprises selon la loi sur la concurrence de la République de Lituanie. Nous examinons les dispositions légales et la pratique judiciaire des tribunaux lituaniens à partir de 2017, date à laquelle la première demande de sanction à l’encontre d’un dirigeant d’entreprise a été déposée. Il est souligné que dans la plupart des cas, les tribunaux ne satisfont pas entièrement les demandes du Conseil de la concurrence en ce qui concerne la sévérité des sanctions imposées aux dirigeants. Dans la deuxième partie de l’article, nous analysons en détail la jurisprudence des tribunaux administratifs de la République de Lituanie et révélons les éléments clés pour l’imposition de sanctions aux dirigeants. Premièrement, dans des circonstances exceptionnelles, les tribunaux peuvent imposer une sanction inférieure à celle prévue par la loi. Deuxièmement, les tribunaux peuvent imposer à la fois des sanctions principales et des sanctions supplémentaires ou n’importe laquelle d’entre elles. Troisièmement, le niveau des sanctions doit être déterminé à la lumière des amendes imposées aux entreprises pour des infractions au droit de la concurrence. L’article se termine par un bref résumé.

EN

This article focuses on the personal liability of managers of undertakings for breaches of competition law. This article starts with a review of the sanction regime for managers of undertakings according to the Competition law of the Republic of Lithuania. Reviewed are legal provisions and judicial practice of the Lithuanian courts starting from 2017, that is, when the first request to sanction a manager of an undertaking was submitted to the court by the Competition Council (CC). It is pointed out that in most cases the courts do not fully accept the requests of the CC with respect to the severity of the sanctions to be imposed on managers. The second part of the Article comprehensively analyses the case-law of administrative courts of the Republic of Lithuania, and presents key elements of the imposition of sanctions on company managers. Firstly, in exceptional circumstances, courts may impose a lower penalty than the one specified by competition law. Secondly, the courts may impose both, the main sanction as well as an additional one, or any of them. Thirdly, the level of sanctions should be determined the light of the fines imposed on undertakings for their infringements of competition law. The article concludes with a short summary.

Keywords

EN

personal liability; infringements of Competition Law; Competition; Council; administrative courts; principle of legal certainty; sanctions

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Zarządzania
• Journal: Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 25
• Pages: 87-108

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Raimundas Moisejevas

• Mykolas Romeris University

• https://orcid.org/0000000224122534

author

Justina Nasutavičienė

• Mykolas Romeris University

• https://orcid.org/0000000314259796

author

Andrius Puksas

• Mykolas Romeris University

• https://orcid.org/0000000216784634

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Identifiers

DOI

10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2022.15.25.4

Biblioteka Nauki

2158406