Competition, Legislation, Lithuania, Transport

The company was issued a fine of 8,700 euros for the violation of the Law on Advertizing after the competition watchdog concluded that the company's advertizing stating that Neste fuel allows cutting CO2 emission by up to 20% was misleading consumers.

Consumers might have believed that Neste Lietuva compared its fuel with that sold by other fuel retailers, but Neste Lietuva in fact made the comparison of the advertized fuel not with its other fuels or fuels sold by other service station chains but with mineral fuels which are not available to consumers.

"The average consumer could have believed that Neste fuel is more environmentally-friendly and less-polluting than fuel sold by other chains. If the company's advertizing had provided more detailed information that its fuel was compared to mineral fuels, consumers would have been able to form a different opinion and would have probably chosen another service station chain," Dite Anilioniene, the head of the Unfair Commercial Practices Investigation Group at the Competition Council, said in a statement.

The council launched its investigation in response to information from the Biofuel Association.