Latvia's Ministry of Economics has presented amendments to the Competition Law aimed at enhancing the involvement of public buyers in recovering losses incurred due to competition law violations in organized procurement processes.

The amendments introduce a new function for the Competition Council (CC) to provide methodological support to public buyers in identifying, assessing, and calculating losses resulting from competition law breaches. The CC will offer consultations on evaluating losses and selecting calculation methods, as well as assist in calculating losses for the submission of claims in court by the public buyer.

Additionally, conditions for implementing the new function have been outlined in the law to separate it from the administrative process of investigating competition law violations, mitigating risks of conflicts of interest. The new CC unit will analyze information submitted by the public buyer, and its opinions, calculations, and consultations will be of a recommendatory nature.

The Competition Council's chairman will oversee the new unit in a supervisory capacity, without engaging in providing opinions or influencing their content substantially.

These changes aim to facilitate public buyers' active participation in recovering losses from competition law violations in organized procurement processes and provide relevant support tools. The Ministry of Economics collaborated with the Competition Council to develop these amendments following an informative report presented to the Cabinet of Ministers earlier this year.