Lithuania’s biggest online marketplace Pigu.lt is facing a police investigation over merchandise with Soviet symbols that are banned in the country.
Last Saturday, MP Dalia Asanavičiūtė posted a screenshot on Facebook, expressing outrage that Pigu.lt was selling belts with five-pointed Soviet stars.
Soviet symbols are banned in Lithuania.
The platform’s communication manager Nerijus Mikalajunas told LRT.lt that the goods were uploaded to marketplace on Friday and that the platform’s AI system, which usually blocks such items, failed to do so.
The items were listed by “an international seller, not from Lithuania or the other Baltic states”, according to him, and they were removed from Pigu.lt on Saturday.
“We apologise to our visitors for the Soviet symbols that temporarily appeared in our catalogue, slipping the AI filters we are constantly improving,” the company posted on Facebook on Saturday night.
According to the company, all the products in question were removed from the system and their sellers were permanently blocked from the Pigu.lt marketplace.
Pigu.lt vowed to strengthen its processes and AI algorithms, adding that goods made in Russia, Belarus or items featuring Soviet symbols have no place on the platform.
“We have consistently supported Ukraine since the early days of the war and will continue to do so until full victory,” the company wrote.
Under Lithuania’s laws, individuals face fines ranging between 300 and 700 euros for the distribution or public display of communist symbols, while organisations may be fined between 600 and 1,200 euros.
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