The Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court confirms the presence of fault being an absolute precondition for competition law liability (G4S / DNB / SEB / Swedbank)

On 8 April 2014, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (‘Supreme Administrative Court’ or the ‘Court’) delivered its judgment in case G4S, DNB bank, SEB bank and Swedbank v. Competition Council [1] . The case concerned the decision by the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania (the ‘Competition Council’ or the ‘Council’) of 20 December 2012, No. 2S-15 (G4S Lietuva, DNB bank, SEB bank, Swedbank; the ‘Decision’). By its Decision the Council established that G4S, a provider of cash handling and cash-in-transit services, had concluded de facto exclusive purchasing agreements for the provision of cash handling services with each of the three banks. Accordingly, the Council concluded that, although each of the vertical agreements in question individually had not been