WIDEN Lithuania represented Klaipėdos vanduo in a significant water management sector case

november 17, 2025

The Lithuanian Court of Appeals has confirmed that AB Grigeo Klaipėda must pay a fine to AB Klaipėdos vanduo, which is managed by the port city municipality, for treating significantly more polluted wastewater. According to the court ruling, the fine amounts to €235,795.11. The court ruling came into force immediately and is significant for the entire water management sector in Lithuania.

The debt to Klaipėdos vanduo arose two years ago under contracts for the period from February to October 2023. The Court of Appeal rejected Grigeo Klaipėda counterclaim, in which the company sought to have several clauses of these contracts declared invalid and to have the fines annulled. The court upheld Klaipėdos vanduo claim, in which the company sought compensation for the treatment of Grigeo Klaipėda industrial wastewater, which accounts for 32.2% of the design capacity of the Klaipėda wastewater treatment plant. The Court of Appeal also confirmed that the decision of the Klaipėda Regional Court was entirely justified.

The court ruling states that Grigeo Klaipėda‘s wastewater contains large amounts of starch, glue, and other substances formed during production, which are extremely sticky and clog a large part of Klaipėdos vanduo infrastructure facilities, settling on walls and filters, requiring additional technological and human resources for equipment maintenance, repair, and renewal.

On October 27, 2022, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania adopted an amendment to the Law on Drinking Water Supply and Wastewater Management, which establishes a new procedure for imposing fines (penalties). According to this procedure, if a subscriber’s wastewater contains more pollutants than the limits set in the contract (which cannot be exceeded due to the capacity of the treatment facilities), a penalty is calculated for each substance that exceeds the limit.

Vilma Sabaliauskienė, a Partner at the law firm WIDEN, notes: “This case has set an important precedent for the entire sector, as it has enabled the ‘polluter pays’ principle to be put into practice. The court’s decision ensures greater legal protection for all participants in the water management market and shows the public that environmental violations cannot be tolerated.”

The Lithuanian Court of Appeals emphasized that in this case, “the purpose of the fine is not only to compensate for losses, but also to have a preventive effect. As a wastewater treatment company, the plaintiff must guarantee the quality of wastewater treatment, and the defendant’s significant and unpredictable pollution poses a risk to the treatment process and requires additional resources, investments, and rapid changes in the technological process.”

The court also noted that the purpose of a wastewater management company is to provide public services for the management of domestic wastewater to residents and consumers. The business is a professional in its field and must take care of the treatment of its own industrial wastewater. The Lithuanian Court of Appeals stated that “in the case under consideration, there was no dispute that, given the nature and concentration of the wastewater it discharges, the defendant is a dominant polluter which, due to the circumstances that have arisen (the defendant being prohibited from using wastewater treatment facilities that do not meet the requirements) it had to discharge all untreated industrial wastewater generated by its activities into the plaintiff’s wastewater networks, whose wastewater treatment facilities were not adapted to treat industrial wastewater, as the plaintiff is a domestic wastewater treatment operator.”

The ruling of the Lithuanian Court of Appeals may still be appealed to the Lithuanian Supreme Court.

Other cases are currently pending in court, in which fines are being sought under other wastewater treatment contracts. Some of them were suspended due to their connection with the case that has been examined, so they should be resumed in the near future.

In this dispute, Klaipėdos vanduo was represented by WIDEN Lithuania’s team led by Partner Vilma Sabaliauskienė and Associate Partner Neringa Gylytė.

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