ArmenTel to pay AMD 20 mln fine with arbitrary court decision

ArmenTel will pay the AMD 20 mln fine penalized by State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC) of Armenia with Armenian Arbitrary court decision.

SCPEC recalled that administrative proceedings were initiated by Orange Armenia’s application in 2013.

The complaint was based on the fact that in September 2013, ArmenTel launched a new "Simpler than Simple" tariff plan. Orange Armenia stated that it's copied from its "Simple" tariff plan which had been patented in the Intellectual Property Agency back in 2011.

Besides, Orange said that ArmenTel's advertisement of the tariff plan features billiard balls colored in orange and red which explicitly point to other mobile operators - Orange and VivaCell-MTS - which are the losing balls in the advertisement.

The commission stated during the proceedings that ArmenTel's conduct harms or may harm other operators’ reputation and business rating, which is a manifestation of unfair competition.

ArmenTel was fined AMD 20 mln with the decision of SCPEC and pledged to eliminate the violation within a short time.

ArmenTel appealed SCPEC’s decision in court but the decision remained the same in all 3 advisory boards.