Regarding the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania

By the decision of 28 February 2018, the Director of the Supervisory Authority of the Bank of Lithuania imposed a sanction on AB Žemaitijos Pienas - a fine of EUR 158,000 for violations of the norms of the Law on Securities of the Republic of Lithuania. By the ruling of 27 July 2018, the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court reduced the fine imposed to 138,000 Euros.

On 14 April 2021, the extended panel of judges of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, having examined the appeals of AB Žemaitijos Pienas and the Bank of Lithuania, upheld them partially. This court amended the decision of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court of 27 July 2018 as follows:

to overrule the part of the ruling of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court of 27 July 2018 regarding the disclosure of incorrect information on the observance of the principles established in the Corporate Governance Code and refer this part of the case to the court of first instance for reconsideration;

• to change the parts of the ruling of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court of 27 July 2018 on non-compliance with the requirements for publication and storage of information, as well as on violations of information disclosure in the consolidated annual reports of  2015, 2016 and in the half-year report of 2017; to partially uphold the complaint of the claimant joint-stock company Žemaitijos Pienas and to annul paragraphs 2.4 and 3.4 of the motivational part of the Decision No. 241-38 of the Director of the Supervisory Service of the Bank of Lithuania of 28 February 2018 “Regarding the application of the sanction to AB Žemaitijos Pienas” in which violations of Article 21 (1) and Article 33 of the Law on Securities of the Republic of Lithuania were stated and established that the claimant violated Articles 22 and 23 of the Law on Securities of the Republic of Lithuania by submitting financial and non-financial indicators not fully in line with the requirements of the API guidelines.

• to leave unchanged the remaining part of the ruling of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court of 27 July 2018.

Among other things, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania instructed the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court to reconsider the issues of the sanction applied.

Gintaras Keliauskas

Lawyer

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