Latvia’s Competition Council has fined the official Baltic distributor of JURA coffee machines and two Latvian retailers a total of €512,100.17 for maintaining a unified retail price level for JURA products in Latvia over several years.
The authority found a prohibited vertical agreement between Estonia’s Rickman Trade OÜ and its Latvian branch, SIA EUGESTA, and SIA Innocent PRO. According to the Competition Council, Rickman Trade’s price “recommendations” functioned as minimum resale prices, while the distributor monitored retailers, questioned lower prices and influenced discount periods and promotion levels. The infringement lasted until 5 February 2025, when procedural actions were carried out in the case.
The case is not only about coffee machines. It shows how a premium-brand resale-pricing scheme linked an Estonian distributor, a Lithuanian-controlled Latvian FMCG group and a Latvian coffee-business holding whose shareholders include a sitting Member of the European Parliament.
Company data card
| Company | Role in case | Fine | 2024 revenue | 2024 profit | Ownership / control |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rickman Trade OÜ / Latvian branch | Official Baltic distributor of JURA; identified by KP as initiator | €255,938.04 | about €15.05m net sales / €14.49m from wholesale of electrical household appliances | about €1.05m operating profit / alternative registry aggregate shows about €837k net profit | Estonian company; public Estonian sources identify Silver Rits as board member and indirect beneficial owner; SSB lists beneficiaries including Dmitri Antipov, Andres Allikas and Silver Rits |
| SIA EUGESTA | Retailer; KP describes passive long-term acceptance of Rickman Trade prices | €232,636.20 | €116.318m | €2.839m | UAB “KS Investicija” — 80%, Aurimas Stabingis — 10%, Andris Pimanovs — 10% |
| SIA Innocent PRO | Retailer; KP describes active role in monitoring other retailers and reporting deviations | €23,525.93 | €7.469m | €458,277 | 100% owned by AS Infinity Coffee; shareholders almost equally split between Aivars Kaulakalns, Uldis Sangovičs, Mārtiņš Staķis and Mārtiņš Dzenis |
Rickman Trade’s financial scale is visible in Estonian public business data. Inforegister shows 2024 sales revenue of €14.49m from wholesale of electrical household appliances, while Äripäev’s Radar reports €15.06m in 2024 sales and €1.05m in operating profit. Inforegister’s person/company data also shows Rickman Trade with €14.19m turnover and €837k net profit in the company aggregate linked to Silver Rits.
For EUGESTA, the scale is much larger. The Latvian wholesaler reported €116.318m in 2024 turnover and €2.839m in net profit. Public data and Latvian media reports identify its ownership as 80% UAB “KS Investicija”, with Aurimas Stabingis and Andris Pimanovs holding 10% each.
Innocent PRO is smaller, but politically more sensitive. The company reported €7.469m in 2024 turnover, up 47.5%, while profit rose 70.4% to €458,277. It is owned by AS Infinity Coffee, whose shareholders include Mārtiņš Staķis, former mayor of Riga and now a Latvian MEP, alongside Uldis Sangovičs, Mārtiņš Dzenis and Aivars Kaulakalns.
According to Latvian company register data reviewed by Baltic Focus, AS Infinity Coffee is almost equally divided between four shareholders. Mārtiņš Staķis holds 24.98232%, the same main share package as Sangovičs, Dzenis and Kaulakalns. Kaulakalns also holds an additional small package of 0.01415%.
The Competition Council’s public statement does not say whether Staķis or other AS Infinity Coffee shareholders were aware of Innocent PRO’s commercial practices in the JURA case. It does state, however, that Innocent PRO had an active role in the infringement: the company monitored other retailers’ prices, reacted to deviations from Rickman Trade’s resale prices and reported inconsistencies to Rickman Trade.
This creates the sharpest governance signal in the case. Innocent PRO received by far the smallest fine because it later cooperated with the Competition Council, voluntarily ended its participation and reached a settlement. But before that, according to the authority, the company had cooperated with Rickman Trade in a very different way — by helping monitor and maintain the unified JURA resale-price policy.
The case therefore goes beyond a routine consumer-retail infringement. It connects a premium coffee-machine price-maintenance scheme in Latvia to a wider Baltic distribution network: an Estonian exclusive distributor, a Lithuanian-controlled Latvian wholesaler-retailer, and a Latvian coffee-business holding with a current European Parliament member among its shareholders.