Lithuanian Merger Reviews May Be Delayed Over Virus

As companies have temporarily suspended their business operations due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Konkurencijos taryba is struggling to receive information from businesses and informs companies that it may take longer than usual to implement the activities ascribed to it by the laws, especially merger control.

Konkurencijos taryba is asking companies and their lawyers to take into account that, as a result of quarantine, it has become more difficult for the authority to collect from market participants information, which is used to evaluate antitrust complaints and examine notifications of concentrations. Some companies already reported their inability to provide information due to the lockdown and asked to postpone the deadlines for the provision of information until the quarantine is over.

Konkurencijos taryba notes that its ability to postpone the deadlines is limited by the laws, especially in merger control procedures. According to the authority, failure to collect information in time when evaluating the competitive effect of a merger may significantly impede the effectiveness of a merger examination procedure.

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