Lithuania’s Competition Council on Friday fined Ekspress Grupp, an Estonian media group that operates the Delfi news websites in the Baltic states, slightly more than 140,000 euros for breaking the law when it acquired the Lithuanian news website lrytas.lt.
The Council found that Ekspress Grupp violated the Law on Competition by acquiring Lrytas, the company controlling the lrytas.lt news website, without notifying the institution and obtaining its permission.
The ruling can be appealed to the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court. However, if it comes into force, Ekspress Grupp will have to apply for and obtain permission from the Competition Council for the transaction or sell its shares in the company that operates the lrytas.lt website.
Ekspress Grupp announced on Friday that it will appeal the Competition Council’s decision.
“We want the court to assess the matter from a legal point of view and then we will take appropriate action,” Mari-Liis Ruutsalu, CEO of Ekspress Grupp, was quoted as saying in a statement published on Nasdaq Tallinn.
The Competition Council launched the probe in this case following a complaint by the 15min news website.
Ekspress Grupp acquired the lrytas.lt news website through a newly established company in Lithuania for an undisclosed value in December 2022. Until then, the news website belonged to Lrytas.
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