Lithuania's Energy Ministry has filed a 240-million-euro lawsuit against the French energy group Veolia and several other firms for damages to the country's economy.
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday with Vilnius Regional Court.
Read more: Vilnius seeks €560m from France's Veolia in arbitration court
The Energy Ministry said the lawsuit concerned companies in the Veolia group, including Veolia Environnement, Veolia Energie International, Vilniaus Energija and Litesko, as well as the Icor group and individuals related to these companies.
“It's an unprecedented case in Lithuania and it’s one of the first cases when a state is seeking compensation from a foreign investor and related persons through a civil procedure for damage done to the entire Lithuanian economy,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Corruption, influence peddling, unfair and competition-restricting agreements do major economic and reputational damage to a state, therefore, the goal is to receive compensation for damage potentially done through these actions.”
The new lawsuit takes the demands Lithuania put forward in its counterclaim against Veolia at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington in 2017 to national courts.
The lawsuit was filed with Vilnius Regional Court after almost all EU member states, including Lithuania and Estonia, signed an international agreement in May, demanding that investors and states withdraw their arbitration claims under bilateral investment protection agreements.
Lithuania is trying to prove that Veolia and Icor used illegal methods to secure lease contracts for heating business in a dozen of Lithuanian municipalities and illegally profited from heat consumers in 1999-2003.
Veolia took Lithuania to the ICSID in Washington, claiming that its investment in Lithuania was undermined by unfair treatment by the country's politicians and regulatory authorities and was initially seeking 118 million euros in damages, but the claim was later reduced to 79 million euros.
Veolia has not withdrawn its claim from the ICSID yet and the case's hearing has been adjourned until the spring of 2021.
It was reported in March that Vilnius Municipality and the municipal heat supply company, Vilniaus Šilumos Tinklai (VŠT), are seeking 560 million euros from Veolia, a former operator of the Lithuanian capital's heating sector, at the Stockholm arbitration.
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