In its judgment of 18 November 2020 (Lietuvos geležinkeliai v Commission, T-814/17), the General Court upheld the Commission’s finding that the national railway company of Lithuania abused its dominant position on the Lithuanian rail freight market.
The national railway company of Lithuania both manages railway infrastructure and provides train transport services in Lithuania. In 2008, that company, in its capacity as railway infrastructure manager, effected a complete removal of a long section of the track along a railway line that another railway company intended to use to provide competing train transport services.
The General Court confirmed that the removal constituted an abuse of a dominant position as such conduct was an act capable of hindering market entry by making access to the market for the provision of train transport services more difficult and thus leading to an anticompetitive foreclosure effect.
It was underlined that the national railway company holds a dominant position on the market for the management of railway infrastructure which derives from a former statutory monopoly. In addition, that company has not invested in the railway network which belongs to the Lithuanian State and which was built and developed using public funds. The General Court also noted that the company does not enjoy unfettered exercise of an exclusive property right, which rewards investment or innovation. Indeed, in its capacity as Lithuania’s railway infrastructure manager, the company bears a statutory obligation to grant access to third parties and ensure the good technical condition of that infrastructure.
In those circumstances, the General Court considered that the conduct in question could not be assessed in the light of the case-law established in relation to refusal to provide access to essential facilities, which sets a higher threshold for finding that a practice is abusive.
However, in the exercise of its unlimited jurisdiction to set the amount of fines, the General Court considered it appropriate to reduce the amount of the fine imposed on the national railway company from EUR 27,873,000 to EUR 20,068,650.
Please contact Pierre de Bandt or Jeroen Dewispelaere for further information regarding the above or for general information relating internal market legislation and competition law.