The Senate’s Department of Administrative Cases has suspended proceedings in a case concerning the repealing of a decision by the Consumer Rights Protection Centre (PTAC) and has submitted preliminary questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), seeking clarification on the interpretation of the concept of unfair commercial practices in European Union law.

The applicant in the case, AS “Civinity Mājas”, is a provider of residential property management services. While managing several apartment buildings, the company charged apartment owners a contractually agreed management fee. After the contractual relationship between the applicant and apartment owners had been terminated, the applicant conducted an audit and discovered that, over an extended period, the invoices issued to apartment owners had mistakenly included a management fee that was lower than the agreed amount. The applicant recalculated the fee and requested the apartment owners to pay the resulting difference. PTAC determined that including an incorrect fee in the invoices had constituted an unfair commercial practice that had adversely affected the economic interests of consumers who had been misled about the true price of that service, and imposed an EUR 5000 penalty on the applicant. The District Administrative Court rejected the complaint, while the Regional Administrative Court affirmed it and ordered the contested decision to be repealed.

In the decision at an assignments sitting adopted by the panel of Senators of the Department of Administrative Cases, it is pointed out that the concept of “commercial practice” in European Union Law is very broad, covering a trader’s actions before, during, and after the conclusion of a contract, provided those actions are directly connected to the promotion, sale, or supply of a product to consumers. However, in the present case this concept has been applied to the production of invoices in a manner detrimental to the applicant, and its impact does not exceed the actual management fee laid down in the concluded agreements and known to the apartment owners. Thus, the panel of Senators concluded that, in order to correctly adjudicate the case under review, it needs to be determined whether the production and submission of invoices shall be deemed a commercial practice on its own, as well as whether the applicant might have failed to exercise the professional diligence of a trader and provided misleading information to consumers. These clarifications are necessary for the proper application of the Unfair Commercial Practices Prohibition Law and to ensure the uniform application of EU law. Accordingly, the panel of Senators adopted a decision at an assignments sitting to refer four preliminary questions to the CJEU and to suspend the proceedings in the case until the CJEU decision enters into force.

Case SKA-14/2026 (A420144722)

Information prepared by Viesturs Lācis, Adviser in the Matters of Senate Communication

Telephone: +371 67020302; e-mail: viesturs.lacis@at.gov.lv