Court uphold seizure of airBaltic assets

  • 2009-01-02
  • TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS
VILNIUS - Lithuania's Court of Appeals has upheld the seizureof almost 200 million litas (57.97 million euros) in assets of Latvia's airline airBaltic and Riga Airport.

However, the court also revoked the order on the seizure of the funds of airBaltic and Riga Airport in banks and overturned prohibitions for therespondents to offer and receive special discounts at the airport, whichLithuania's flagship carrier FlyLAL-LithuanianAirlines strongly objectsto.

"In the opinion of the LithuanianCourt of Appeals, the necessity to maintainthe seizure of 200 million litas worth of assets is justified by thedecision of Latvia's Competition Council on illegal discounts received by airBaltic and anti-competitive actions," the court said in a statement.

AirBaltic representatives said that the company would comply with the decision.

"We respect the decision of the LithuanianCourt of Appeal and willimplement it," said Tadas Vizgirda, airBaltic'svice-president and the head of its Lithuanianunit

The seizure was ordered by the Vilnius Regional Court late in Septemberas an interim measure requested by Lithuania's flagship carrierFlyLAL-LithuanianAirlines, which claims to have sustained damages of closeto 200 million litas due to favorable conditions extended by Riga Airport to airBaltic, which, as a result, is able to offer lower prices thus gainingunfair competitive advantage.