At the end of January, AS “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM) applied to the court with a statement of claim seeking to have the long-term forest harvesting contracts (IML) declared invalid, at the same time asking the court to suspend the operation of the IML contracts until the court's ruling comes into force. Yesterday, on 24 March, in one such claim the court decided to grant LVM's application for interim protection.

The court ruled that, until the final ruling comes into force, the operation of the IML contracts included in the proceedings is to be suspended and the contracting partners are to be prohibited from demanding performance of the obligations arising from those transactions.

Accordingly, as of 25 March 2026, LVM has halted timber deliveries to the holders of long-term forest harvesting contracts involved in these particular proceedings.

LVM recalls that, in keeping with the instructions issued by the Competition Council (KP), LVM first offered the IML holders to agree on terminating the contracts; however, the IML holders rejected the offer to terminate the contracts by agreement.

Consequently, in order to comply with the Competition Council's instructions and to have them assessed in the light of the legislation governing lawful transactions, LVM applied to the court with a statement of claim seeking to have the IML contracts declared invalid, at the same time asking the court to suspend the operation of the IML contracts until the court's ruling comes into force.

LVM has also considered the possibility of unilateral withdrawal from the IML contracts provided for in Section 1589 of the Civil Law, which sets out the cases in which unilateral withdrawal from a contract is permissible. The opinion of legal experts concluded that none of these cases has arisen, and therefore the only lawful route to terminating the IML contracts is through the courts.