The Competition Council (CC) has reviewed the information on the websites of several municipal water service providers and companies providing water management services and concluded that the information on the websites of service providers and internal customer information systems is often incomplete and difficult to understand for customers. It also discriminates against other market participants, creating different conditions of competition and resulting in non-compliance with Section 14.1 of the Competition Law (CL).
In the first half of 2024, the CC found that the company SIA Jelgavas nekustamā īpašuma pārvalde did not provide complete information on the company’s website and internal information system about the water service provider’s cooperation partners who are entitled to replace water consumption meters. Following repeated monitoring by the CC, SIA Jelgavas nekustamā īpašuma pārvalde has remedied the potential non-compliance with Section 14.1 of the CL by publishing information on all its cooperation partners on its website and internal information system, thereby not discriminating against other market participants and not hindering the activities of other market participants on the market.
By randomly reviewing the websites of other water service providers and municipal companies providing water management services and by assessing the information available to customers in internal customer information systems on the replacement of water consumption meters, the CC has concluded that only in rare cases can the information to customers be assessed as complete and clearly understandable. Most often, service providers do not specify the procedure for customers to change their water meter, nor do they specify all the service provider’s cooperation partners who are entitled to change water meters.
The CC points out that public administrative bodies – the State, municipalities and their companies, including municipal companies providing water management services, including the replacement of water consumption meters, are prohibited from infringing Section 14.1 of the CL by their actions, unreasonably restricting free competition and discriminating against other market participants. The CC further underlines that, according to Section 88 of the State Administration Structure Law, publicly owned companies should refrain from providing services that can be provided by private sector companies.