Puksas, Andrius

Public procurement and competition law aim to ensure fairness and efficiency, but their strict application may unintentionally hinder supplier participation and limit contracting authorities’ success. Agreements among suppliers must avoid restricting competition, yet overly rigid competition rules may prevent contracting authorities from receiving a single tender for works, services or goods. While there is a potential risk of consortia abuse, detailed case-by-case analyses are essential to address these concerns. Some countries are already developing practices for evaluating such agreements. This paper examines the legal framework and emerging practices surrounding joint bidding and explores options for balancing public procurement and competition law. Particular focus is given to the conditions under which undertakings can submit joint offers without breaching competition rules. Current regulations provide some direction but lack clarity on when bidding consortia are permissible. Given the strict sanctions for competition law violations, many undertakings hesitate to form joint ventures, fearing that consortia may be deemed a “by object” breach, placing the burden of proof on the participants. This uncertainty underscores the need for comprehensive legal and economic evaluations in joint bidding cases. The lack of legal certainty presents significant challenges, making it critical to advance research and publication on this topic to provide clearer guidance for stakeholders involved in public procurement.

In 2023, the European Commission adopted revised Guidelines on the applicability of Article101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to horizontal co-operation agreement, fol-lowing athorough evaluation and review of the Guidelines on the applicability of Article101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to horizontal co-operation agreements. The chapter of the Guidelines on commercialization agreements was expanded to include anew section on bidding consortia and guidance on the distinction with bid rigging. The Commission proposed to use the term “bidding consortium” for simplicity instead of “joint bidding”. Public procurement and competition law aim to achieve similar goals. Coordinated actions of competitors may jeopardize the outcome of public procurement. This is particularly the case when several potential suppliers attempt to join forces in a public procurement. In the article, the authors analyze the legal framework of the EU Member States for assessing proposals resulting from joint activities and bidding. Particular attention is paid to the regulatory and practical constraints faced by suppliers and contracting authorities.

The Data Governance Act was proposed in late 2020 as part of the European Strategy for Data, and adopted on 30 May 2022 (as Regulation 2022/868). It will enter into application on 24 September 2023. The Data governance Act is a major development in the legal framework affecting CLARIN and the whole language community. With its new rules on the re-use of data held by the public sector bodies and on the provision of data sharing services, and especially its encouragement of data altruism, the Data Governance Act creates new opportunities and new challenges for CLARIN ERIC. This paper analyses the provisions of the Data Governance Act, and aims at initiating the debate on how they will impact CLARIN and the whole language community.

Su rinkimais susijusių duomenų rinkimas susijęs su viešojo intereso įgyvendinimu. Nuoroda į viešąjį interesą neprieštarauja BDAR įtvirtintiems principams, tačiau duomenų saugojimo ‘tiek, kiek reikia’ ribos gali būti platesnės. Renkami, apdorojami ir saugomi piliečių duomenys leidžia užtikrinti rinkėjų konstitucines teises bei sudaro prielaidas įgyvendinti jiems nustatytas pareigas, o kartu sukuria ir pareigas tokių duomenų valdytojams bei tvarkytojams užtikrinti aukštus duomenų apsaugos standartus ir įpareigoja saugomus duomenis naudoti tik pagal paskirtį. Kiekviena ES valstybė narė iš esmės dirba su panašiais duomenimis. Tiesa, skiriasi renkamų, apdorojamų ir saugomų asmens duomenų apimtys. Šiame straipsnyje nagrinėjami su rinkimais susijusių duomenų rinkimo, apdorojimo ir saugojimo ypatumai. Juo siekiama įvertinti ES priklausančių Baltijos jūros regiono valstybių (Estijos, Danijos, Latvijos, Lenkijos, Lietuvos, Suomijos, Švedijos ir Vokietijos) praktiką bei nustatytus standartus dirbant su šiais duomenimis.

The aim of the study is to identify, map and assess the maturity and impact level of the specific energy-oriented economy and other SMART management concepts and social, technological, finance (economical), environmental, and communication (S.T.F.E.C.) trends which arose from the dynamic development and spread of the Industry 4.0 revolution on processes of effective competitiveness and the creation of modern enterprises. The article presents data and information obtained thanks to an in-depth review of the literature (extensive desk research), as well as that obtained as part of the conducted CAWI pilot study. The authors aim to search for answers to three specific research questions, concluding that recently, special attention is paid to such issues as co-creation and co-production, energy-oriented and circular economy, eco-energy, and sustainability. The findings of this study clearly show that in the SMART WORLD era, there is a growing interest in cooperation, co-creation, co-production issues, and usage of modern technologies and SMART management concepts typical of the Industry 4.0 era. The main reason for this is that enterprises strive to optimize and maximize their efficiency in the processes of competitiveness creation. Researched data allows us to conclude that openness to social, environmental, and technological trends and issues, with an approach based on sustainable and eco-energy-oriented development, play an increasingly important role. However, the level of their importance, implementation level, and maturity differ depending on the type of organization or industry. For example, service and trade companies more often than production companies use and rate the usefulness of social trends higher (reality = mainstream orientation for S&T companies and a future orientation for production companies), while production companies apply a more balanced approach, showing greater commitment to economic technological, environmental and financial trends (reality = mainstream orientation for production companies and a future orientation for trade and services companies). Given that the study shows and describes preliminary research results (pilot studies), the authors plan to undertake further efforts in the in-depth scientific exploration of the issues concerned, including, which is particularly important, conducting full-scale research.

The EU State Aid regulation is based on the premise that the market and the entities within it must operate independently without additional unnecessary intervention by the state. In other words, state intervention must be kept to a minimum. Unjustified aid to one or another entity may distort the situation in the market and lead to a number of undesirable consequences, including market advantage acquired by the aided entity. The willingness of the state and its institutions to help those who face difficulties may be understandable, but not always justified. However, the prohibition on a state and its institutions to grant aid is not unconditional and, in some cases, may cause serious undesired consequences. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which hit EU member states in the first half of 2020, led to a re-thinking of the rules in force and a broadening of the scope for state aid exemptions. However, there are a number of questions about the nature of the EU State Aid regulation and its correlation with COVID-19 outbreak-conditioned decisions. The article analyses the state aid granting practices across the EU (including the UK) related to COVID-19. It covers approximately two year period from the start of the pandemic in Europe to March 2022.

Twitter data is used in a wide variety of research disciplines in Social Sciences and Humanities. Although most Twitter data is publicly available, its re-use and sharing raise many legal questions related to intellectual property and personal data protection. Moreover, the use of Twitter and its content is subject to the Terms of Service, which also regulate re-use and sharing. The first part of this paper provides an analysis of these issues, whereas the second part discusses two possible strategies to address them: using the new Academic Research product track, which enables authorized researchers to access Twitter API on a preferential basis, or relying on the new statutory copyright exception for Text and Data Mining for research purposes.

This article focuses on the personal liability of managers of undertakings for breaches of competition law. This article starts with a review of the sanction regime for managers of undertakings according to the Competition law of the Republic of Lithuania. Reviewed are legal provisions and judicial practice of the Lithuanian courts starting from 2017, that is, when the first request to sanction a manager of an undertaking was submitted to the court by the Competition Council (CC). It is pointed out that in most cases the courts do not fully accept the requests of the CC with respect to the severity of the sanctions to be imposed on managers. The second part of the Article comprehensively analyses the case-law of administrative courts of the Republic of Lithuania, and presents key elements of the imposition of sanctions on company managers. Firstly, in exceptional circumstances, courts may impose a lower penalty than the one specified by competition law. Secondly, the courts may impose both, the main sanction as well as an additional one, or any of them. Thirdly, the level of sanctions should be determined the light of the fines imposed on undertakings for their infringements of competition law. The article concludes with a short summary.

This paper considers the issue of minority participation in local cultural development, as illustrated by the case of the Lithuanian minority in Puńsk, Poland. The authors identify some factors which support engagement of the national minority in crossborder cultural cooperation. The illustrative case demonstrates how cross-border cooperation based on a minority’s activities can lead to improved relations between neighbouring countries. For the analysed territory, the Lithuanian minority’s activities make an important contribution to balancing bilateral relations and agreeing the strategic goals of borderland development. The activities attract tourists who want to experience the specific Lithuanian culture in Puńsk and Lithuanian minority activities there have become a tourist attraction for borderland visitors. The Puńsk case study shows how the Polish community’s development has been strongly influenced both by Lithuanian culture and by the minority’s activities.