“ArmenTel” accused SCPEC of violating the law on “Administrative Proceedings”

Yerevan/Mediamax/. “ArmenTel” Company (Beeline trademark) accused today the State Committee for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC) of Armenia of violating a number of provisions of the law on “Administrative Proceedings”.

As the Head of “ArmenTel” Legal Service David Sandukhchyan stated at the news conference today concerning SCPEC decision on imposing a fine, the Committee initiated the administrative proceedings basing on its own wish.

According to him, SCPEC employees informed the company in written form that the Committee did not receive complaints from consumers, however today they presented the issue “in a distorted way”.

David Sandukhchyan stated that he assesses the activity of SCPEC as an effort to put pressure on “ArmenTel”. According to him, in the course of 6 months, the Committee and the Company have been carrying out negotiations to reach a compromise concerning two previous decisions of SCPEC (N-79а and N-81а), which provided for imposing a fine at the volume of 300mln AMD and declaring the company as occupying a dominating position in the market of international traffic.

David Sandukhchyan informed that at present both decisions of the Committee are being considered in Administrative Court, however, as a “compromise”,  SCPEC offers “ArmenTel” to pay 300mln AMD and to stop the appeal process.

David Sandukhchyan noted that “ArmenTel” company expresses its concern in connection with today’s decision of the Committee and believes that by using ungrounded sanctions, SCPEC is creating a dangerous precedent in terms of interrelations with managing subjects. He also stated that, to all appearances, “ArmenTel” will dispute SCPEC today’s decision in court.

Let’s remind that SCPEC fined “ArmenTel” today for 500 thousand AMD “for misleading consumers and for unfair competition”.