Forum Cinemas fined €1.4m for cartel agreement

The Lithuanian Competition Council announced the decision on Friday, saying that the company had an agreement with two other theatre chains, Multikino Lietuva and Cinamon Operations, to coordinate ticket prices.

“The investigation has revealed that the companies, which operate cinema theatres in Vilnius and Kaunas, picked up on the initiative of Forum Cinemas and refused to give special offers for families, weekend screenings and did not offer discounts on popular titles. Forum Cinemas clearly encouraged its competitors to stick to ‘established’ practices not to offer discounts on film tickets in the beginning of the run,” Jolanta Ivanauskienė, a member of the Competition Council, said in a statement.

The other two companies named in the decision, Multikino Lietuva and Cinamon Operations, admitted their involvement in the cartel agreement in exchange for having their fines, €99,200 and €136,800 respectively, waived. Forum Cinemas has been fined €1.384 million.

According to the Competition Council, the cartel agreement between Forum Cinemas and Multikino Lietuva in Vilnius lasted for almost two years, while the one between Forum Cinemas and Cinamon Operations, lasted for three years.

Forum Cinemas said in a statement on Friday it would appeal, insisting it had not taken part in any agreements on fixing ticket prices.

Forum Cinemas operates six cinema theatres in Lithuania and owns the distribution company Forum Cinemas Home Entertainment. It is owned by Finland’s Nordic Cinema Group Holding.