On 12 October, the Competition Council of Latvia (CC) held the 6th Lawyers' Forum, which has become a platform, where representatives of the CC and law offices meet on annual basis in order to discuss theoretical and practical issues regarding enforcement and interpretation of the Competition Law.
Competition experts discussed current events of the area and looked for solutions on the existing issues during open discussion, thus establishing as much as possible transparent and comprehensive environment for application of the Competition Law.
Claims of compensations for losses in competition cases was on the agenda of the Forum. The amendments provide that consumers, companies and other involved parties have simplified procedure to claim for compensation from market participants because of damages caused due to infringement.
Although the Leniency programme is not used frequently in Latvia, it is an effective and important tool to detect infringements of the Competition Law. To strengthen understanding of companies and their representatives about the possibilities of the Leniency programme, the CC presented its activities regarding promotion of the programme.
During the Lawyers' Forum the representatives of the CC also presented planned changes in the legal regulation of competition, while the guest speaker invited for a discussion regarding information exchange and boundaries thereof between the general contractor and subcontractor.
Māris Spička, The Executive Director of the CC, highlights the advantages of the Forum: “The current format of the event enables to discuss various legal issues of the competition from different perspectives. The Forum facilitates idea exchange and enables the representatives of market participants to understand the authority’s decisions. At the same time the authority can get broader understanding about problem situations that the market participants and representatives thereof are facing.”