Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a consultation, during which the report on the activities of the Chairman of the Competition Protection Commission Gegham Gevorgyan for the period of 2019-2023 was discussed.
Before the presentation of the report, the Head of the Government noted. “As agreed, today we will listen to the report of Gegham Gevorgyan, the chairman of the Competition Protection Commission, on the activities of the previous five years, in order to also discuss the issue of nominating the candidate for the chairman of the Competition Protection Commission.”
The Chairman of the Competition Protection Commission presented the works carried out during the reporting period in the direction of the development of competitive environment, the protection of consumers’ interests, and the development of the institutional capacities of the Commission. Details were presented on the reforms carried out in the field of regulation of the Commission, development of new regulations, crisis management, development of the legal base aimed at market stability and reducing the risks of anti-competitive situations.
Gegham Gevorgyan noted that before 2018, anti-competitive actions of state bodies were not subject to investigation by the Commission, in recent years an investigation was also conducted in this direction. According to him, this is also very important, because business should also feel protected from possible violations of competitive activities by the state.
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According to the chairman of the commission, starting from 2019, the Commission has been implementing a new function, which is aimed at studying the food and non-food product market of social importance. “The essence is that we fully study a specific product market, identify barriers for its import – legal, economic, and make recommendations to policy making bodies on what needs to be changed to make the market more competitive and more developed”, said the chairman of the commission.
Gegham Gevorgyan emphasized that in 2023 the Competition Protection Commission became a member of ICPEN, one of the most prestigious structures in the world in the field of consumer rights protection.
Referring to the seperate points of the report, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of the evaluation toolkit for consumer rights protection and competition protection in the Republic of Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan also referred to the issue of food production standards on the market and noted that the Government should be responsible for what food is sold to people, that is, the products should be marked, showing that they meet the standards and is safe. “The government should mark that this is ice cream and the one that is not marked is not ice cream,” said Nikol Pashinyan.
The participants of the meeting also spoke about the violations of discounts implemented by businessmen. The Prime Minister noted that it is necessary to implement such a policy that not only punishes the economic operators who have committed violations, but also encourages those economic operators who have not committed violations. “Let’s give a letter of thanks to those people, let’s say we’re thankful that you work like that. In order to change the practice, we should not only punish bad practice, but also encourage good practice,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
During the meeting, Nikol Pashinyan referred to the issue of illegal markings made by owners of business on state-owned roadsides in different parts of the country and noted that these roadsides are used without any legal basis and as a result, safety problems arise on the roads, traffic speed decreases, no funds are paid to the state budget by the private sector. In this regard, the Prime Minister gave specific instructions to the officials.
The Prime Minister inquired how the prices of various essential products on the market are controlled, for example, the price of gasoline, diesel fuel, or how the problem related to the increase in the price of eggs before Easter is settled. Gegham Gevorgyan noted that the Commission monitors the entire import chain: taxes, transportation costs, stock exchange price, etc. As for the possible increase in egg price, the chairman of the Commission noted that after imposing some fines, the problem was settled. According to Gevorgyan, the same applies to the gasoline market.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
