The Lithuanian Competition Council has ruled that Ekspress Grupp, the owner of the news portal delfi.lt, must sell one of its news portals following an unapproved acquisition of Lrytas, which operates lrytas.lt. The Council determined that the merger created a significant restriction of competition in the Lithuanian news market, as both portals were leading competitors with a combined market share exceeding 40%.

In its assessment, the Competition Council analyzed data from various news portals, including traffic and user engagement metrics, and consulted with advertising buyers and other market participants. The findings revealed that the merger resulted in a highly concentrated market, eliminating a key competitor that provided free news content, which previously pressured delfi.lt to maintain competitive pricing for its paid content.

The Council noted that the merger allowed delfi.lt to increase its paid content volume while reducing free offerings, adversely affecting readers who prefer free news. The remaining news portals were deemed insufficient to challenge delfi.lt's market power, leading to a decline in incentives for delfi.lt to improve its paid content or lower subscription prices.

Despite commitments from Ekspress Grupp to operate Lrytas separately and offer its content for free, the Council found these measures inadequate to restore competition. Consequently, Ekspress Grupp has been ordered to revert to the previous market conditions within six months or sell one of its portals, subject to the Council's approval. The decision can be appealed within one month.