The Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed, in a judgment on Thursday 12 January (Case C-42/21 P), the fine imposed in October 2017 on Lietuvos geležinkeliai, the national railway company in Lithuania, for abuse of a dominant position on the freight market (see EUROPE 11874/7), which the EU General Court reduced to €20 million in November 2020.
Due to the dismantling of part of the railway line to the Latvian border by this Lithuanian company with which it had a commercial agreement, a Lithuanian oil company owned by a Polish group was not able to entrust its oil products to the Latvian State Railways, a decision it had taken following a dispute with Lietuvos geležinkeliai.
In its judgment, the Court noted that a refusal to grant access to infrastructure developed by a dominant undertaking for the needs of its own activities, and owned by it, is likely to constitute an abuse of a dominant position within the meaning of Union law.
In its view, the removal of the disputed railway line, making it unusable by competitors and the dominant undertaking itself, can thus constitute an autonomous form of abuse of a dominant position.
See the Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/4vc (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)