One of Estonia's largest investment firms and owned by businessman Margus Linnamäe, MM Grupp is the holding company for over 100 firms including entertainment provider Apollo Group, pharmaceuticals wholesaler Magnum, and the Postimees media group.

MM Grupp also operates in Latvia, as well as Lithuania, where it is currently involved in protracted proceedings with that country's competition authority, including with regard to the opening of cinemas there.

MM Grupp board member Kristel Volver told ERR that in the company's view, the Lithuanian Competition Authority has been harassing their various investments and companies, over a period of several years.

"This has been an activity lasting for years, and the common denominator we see is the connection to MM Grupp. As we perceive it, our companies are not being treated equally compared with others, for example companies under local capital; various procedural rules are being violated, investigation processes are being dragged out, and we are exhausted with requests for information," Volver outlined.

Volver pointed to issues relating to cinema companies acquired by MM Grupp in Lithuania as one recent striking example.

Under EU competition rules, none of the transactions required authorization from the local competition authority, yet that authority took over two-and-a-half years to process the merger, instead of the six months provided for under law.

According to Volver, the Lithuanian competition authority imposed a number of forceful measures to block the transactions, including by placing two of the cinemas under its direct supervision.

"Lithuanian courts in the meantime found that the competition authority acted unlawfully and these measures have since been annulled," Volver said.

"It seems to us that the Lithuanian competition authority wants to protect the position of the local cinema monopoly, or is guided by some other motives. The institution changes its opinions on the fly, unpredictably, and in contradiction to its own earlier practices," she went on.

Volver noted these actions have also been accompanied by hostile and aggressive public relations, where negative claims about MM Grupp companies are being propagated in order to put pressure on them and to hamper normal business activity and relations with local partners.

"Since we have been experiencing this type of 'attention' in Lithuania for a long time and also in other cases, we therefore suspect that competition rules are being applied in a discriminatory way towards our companies. As our legal interests and normal business activity are being clearly and unlawfully restricted, and, if this continues, we will have to consider claiming compensation for damage caused from the Lithuanian state," Volver continued.

To prevent matters from reaching that stage, MM Grupp has also sought advice from the Estonian state and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking them to help bring clarity to the situation.

Foreign minister media adviser Egert Puhm confirmed to ERR that they are aware of MM Grupp's concerns regarding its operations in the Lithuanian market.

"We are communicating with the relevant representatives of the Lithuanian state, for example the competition authority, to clarify the specific issues and possible solutions," Puhm said.

Volver said that MM Grupp complies with Lithuanian laws and enforceable court rulings, and considers transparent communication with the Lithuanian competition authority important, but added there is something fundamentally wrong in the whole affair, making the case serve as a warning for all foreign investors operating in Lithuania.

"We hope, come what may, with the help of the Estonian state, to take a step forward in this matter — or more rightly back, to restore a proper dialogue with Lithuanian competition supervision. Our interest is to invest, to develop our companies. Both the related Lithuanian and Estonian economies will benefit from this," Volver went on.

While the deadline by which MM Grupp must submit its latest annual report has not yet arrived, in the financial year from May 2023 to the end of April 2024 their turnover in the Lithuanian market came to €120.7 million. As of the end of last April they had 311 employees on payroll in that country.

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