On 21 November, the Competition Council of Latvia (the CC) adopted a decision, detecting that one of the largest Latvia’s traders of building materials SIA “DEPO DIY” has not provided full information upon request of the authority during investigation. The competition authority imposed a fine of 701 811 euros on SIA “DEPO DIY” for non-fulfilment of the company obligation.
In the period from 2015 to 2017, the CC investigated a prohibited agreement of four building materials traders and two building materials manufacturers. In 2017, the CC adopted a decision, detected long-term price coordination and maintaining of artificially increased price level, and imposed fines in total of 5.8 million euros. Currently, court proceedings are in progress regarding the decision.
During the investigation of the infringement case, SIA “DEPO DIY” provided explanations in relation to the evidence obtained by the authority. After completion of investigation and adoption of the final decision, the CC established that the explanations provided by the company to the authority were incomplete. Namely, during the investigation, SIA “DEPO DIY” were unable to comment on specific e-mail correspondence of the company due to its oldness, but several years later provided detailed explanations regarding this correspondence during court proceedings. During investigation of the case, the company also had not used the option to specify and supplement the explanations initially provided to the authority.
Consequently, the CC imposed a fine equal to 701 811 euros on SIA “DEPO DIY” for the procedural infringement during the investigation, failing to provide full information required for investigation.
Court proceedings are currently in progress regarding the decision of CC, adopted on 2017. The decision adopted on 21 November of this year does not affect the decision adopted in 2017 or the course of the said court proceedings.