EU top court upholds EU antitrust fine on Lithuanian Rail

Europe's top court on Thursday upheld an EU antitrust fine handed out to Lithuanian Rail six years ago for removing a track running to Latvia to hinder a Latvian rival used by Polish oil company PKN Orlen. The European Commission in its 2017 decision said Lithuanian Rail removed the 19 km (12 mile) stretch of track in 2008 after PKN Orlen used another rail operator to redirect its freight to Latvian ports from its refinery in Lithuania.

Europe's top court on Thursday upheld an EU antitrust fine handed out to Lithuanian Rail six years ago for removing a track running to Latvia to hinder a Latvian rival used by Polish oil company PKN Orlen.

The European Commission in its 2017 decision said Lithuanian Rail removed the 19 km (12 mile) stretch of track in 2008 after PKN Orlen used another rail operator to redirect its freight to Latvian ports from its refinery in Lithuania. Lithuanian Rail challenged the decision and convinced a lower tribunal to cut the 27.9-million-euros antitrust fine to 20.07 million. The case then went to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

"The Court of Justice upholds the judgment of the General Court imposing a fine of approximately 20 million euros on the Lithuanian national rail company," CJEU judges said. "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 Court said there is already case law that a refusal to grant access to infrastructure developed by a dominant undertaking for the purposes of its own business and owned by it may constitute an abuse of a dominant position. The case is C-42/21 P Lietuvos geležinkeliai v Commission.

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