Without ties and formal wording: this is how the Chairman of the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition, representatives of business and non-profit organizations today met, had breakfast and discussed the problems in the field of economic competition. The event was organized in the scope of the “Evidence-based Advocacy for Reform” project, which is implemented by the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE), Armenian Lawyers’ Association (ALA) and European Business Association (EBA) with financial support of the German International Cooperation (GIZ). Arkadi Sahakyan, the Lawyer of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises presented the bizprotect.am website, which provides an opportunity to report the problems that hinder the development of business, after which the specialists study the application and respond quickly to it. It is possible also to inform about a problem anonymously. The website creators, taking into consideration the international standards and experience, also have taken care that no one (including law enforcement agencies) could identify the reporting person. By the way, there are already success stories. The mobile application bizprotect.am or bizpashtpan.am has been created as well, which helps to report on a problem faster. The application allows not only sending of text information, but also the photos and documents. Miss Mariam Zadoyan, Llawyer of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, presented the major issue in the field of economic competition, speaking about the issue of fighting against monopolies. According to her, the best solution is to create register of real estate owners. In case when there is no responsibility to present the beneficiary owners, one individual may create several organizations (in the name of different individuals) and carry out the same activity, having a factual monopolist position in the market. Meanwhile, the monopoly problem will be solved if there is the institute for identifying the beneficiary owners. Mr. Artak Shaboyan, the Chair of the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition of the Republic of Armenia noted that they are for the implementation of the Institute of Beneficiary Ownres in the Field of Economic Competition. However, procedural issues such as the body and how to control, and so on should be discussed. A. Shaboyan also spoke about some changes in the legislation regulating the activity of SCPEC, in particular about the need to provide broader powers: specifically, in some cases there is a need to have operative-intelligence powers to identify anti-competitive violations. As a result of frank discussions, consistent steps will be taken to coordinate the identified problems and find solutions.
