The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia prohibits the abuse of monopoly or dominant position, unfair competition and cartel agreements (with very few exceptions). The law on “Protection of Economic Competition” of the Republic of Armenia, as well as in other pieces of legislation regulating specific areas of economic activity (banking, telecommunications, audiovisual services, utilities etc.) further describe these limitations and mechanisms of their implementation.

Most of the breaches of competition law regulations may result in rather severe consequences. For example, the fine for the abuse of the dominant position can equal up to 10 per cent of the responsible entity’s income of the preceding year. Similar penalties are foreseen for actions of unfair competition, enacting of prohibited concentration and in other relevant breaches. Furthermore, the legislation also foresees criminal liability for many of the anti-competitive activities.

At the same time, compliance with competition laws while entering into certain transactions (e.g. M&A, Major asset purchase, Investment, significant joint venture transactions) is critical also to control management and timing risks: in some instances, if the relevant competition law regulations are breached, the result may be the annulment of an M&A or Share Purchase or Asset Purchase transactions (with all negative consequences and spent resources), or prohibition of advertisement campaign (where a lot of resources were already invested), or request to change the way of business (e.g. work with vendors or suppliers) and others.

In addition to the legal and direct economic negative consequences, any ongoing proceeding also may result in unfavourable public perception and impair the business in general.

Competition law is one of the main areas of practice of Concern Dialog law firm, and the firm is specialising in the area for more than a decade. Concern Dialog’s experience includes assistance to the clients in the framework of numerous proceedings in the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC) and other regulatory bodies, competition law consultancy, reviewing contracts, procedures and practices to ensure their compliance with the competition law regulations, as well as competition law litigation.

Within the antitrust & competition law area of practice, we work closely

• with the marketing teams of the client on new advertisement and communication campaigns,
• with the M&A teams to undertake competition law due diligence checks of previous transactions (stand-alone, or within a broader M&A process) and to ensure the correct filing of the ongoing one,
• with the management of the client while negotiating Joint Ventures or other significant transactions and
• with clients in general to ensure full compliance with the competition law regulations.
• The Firm also represents the interests of its clients in the event of unfair competition or other competition law breaches by other players of the market, including undertaking civil law litigations.

We offer the following services in the field of antitrust and competition law:

• Analysis of the (actual or planned) projects or transactions of the client or ones of their competitors aimed at finding possible violations of Competition law regulations (competition law compliance analysis),
• Consultation on antitrust and competition law issues connected to Mergers and Acquisitions and other related transactions,
• Filing Concentration declarations during M&A, Asset purchase and Joint Venture transactions,
• Representation in the State Committee of the Protection of Economic Competition, as well as in other administrative bodies on the issues connected to competition law,
• Consultation related to compliance of advertising requirements, review of the advertisement and communications materials from the competition law point of view,
• Representation in courts of general jurisdiction regarding possible disputes with competitors as well as in administrative courts in disputes with state bodies (including the SCPEC),

Some of the notable cases in antitrust and competition law area of practice include:

• The firm consulted two major telecommunication market participants (inlcuding a mobile operator and a significant broadband and TV service provider), regarding a potential M&A transaction, including a prior Due Diligence of compliance with competition laws,
• The firm represents a client before the SCPEC and courts in proceedings on alleged unfair competition practices by former executives, upon departure from the company.
• The firm represented Veolia Djur CJSC on a dispute related to alleged abuse of dominant position by the latter with a former provider of goods and services,
• The firm represented a dairy producer in judicial proceedings against the SCPEC related to unfair competition allegations (marking of product).
• The firm advised a client (international care product producer) on applicable regulations related to the required content of the information to be printed on products (marking) and analysed the video commercial from the competition law point of view,
• The firm consulted one of the domain name registrars of .am and .հայ domains in relations with ISOC NGO, the provider of .am and .հայ domains (ccTLD), on issues of the pricing policy and imposed limitations within the process. This included receiving prior consent of the SCPEC to the proposed standard contract of the ISOC NGO with the registrars (during the process the contract was amended to make it compliant within the guidance of SCPEC).