The Economic Competition Protection Commission (ECPC) fined a couple of business managers for careless competition. Careless competition, in this case, is the similarities in trademarks. Many business managers of Armenia, especially small and medium businessmen, produce products with trademarks similar to those of well-known international trademarks and confuse consumers.
The consumer notices the similarity and, in some cases, the sameness of the physical appearance of the product and is not able to differentiate between the real and the product produced in Armenia. Some business managers or businessmen have turned that manner of working into a custom. For example, “Salex Group”, which belongs to National Assembly deputy Samvel Alexanyan, has produced and sold vodka by the name of “Khlebnaya”, which is similar to the Russian “Khlebnaya Doroga” vodka. In 2006 “Khlebnaya Doroga” was registered by the Russian “Veda Finance” company for ten years. The ECPC considered this as careless competition and fined Alexanyan 100,000 drams. It is clear that “Salex Group” will pay the fine, but it is obvious that that money forms only a small part of the profit gained from vodka sales. Besides that, 100,000 drams is not enough to scare “Salex Group” from carrying out illegal activities. Let us add that other companies belonging to Alexanyan have also committed other violations in the past years with the production of vegetable oil, tea and other products. So, they got off easy by only paying a 100,000 drams fine and gaining profit by falsifying trademarks. True, according to the new law on economic competition protection, the amount of the fine ranges from 500,000-2 million drams, but the companies fined during Wednesday’s session will be fined the old amounts. The reason for that is because when the commission had accepted their cases, the new law was still not in effect. One of the other companies that were fined on Wednesday was the MAP company belonging to former National Assembly deputy Alexan Petrosyan. This company had procured licensed brandy bottles from the “Proshyan Brandy Factory” and had sold the brandy by filling its brandy in the bottles. It is not excluded that Alexanyan and Petrosyan will use another well-known trademark and organize beneficial production after this.
By making trademarks similar to their own, deputies Alexanyan and Petrosyan have set an example for many other businessmen and companies. Two coffee-producing companies were charged with fines for making the “Nescafe” and “Pele” trademarks similar to one another. It is worth mentioning that Armenian producers mainly falsify vodka and coffee trademarks. Besides “Salex Group”, a couple of other vodka-producing companies were also fined. The “Coopoliva”, “HyeCola”, “Universam Group” and “FirmaTigran” companies were also fined on Wednesday. It was rather interesting to hear the debate on “TeleMarket”. Based on the publications of “168 Hours”, “Azg” and “Im Iravunk” newspapers, as well as the appeal of the “Protection of Consumer Interests” NGO, the commission has filed a lawsuit and clarified with difficulty that the “TeleMarket” series of programs used to advertise different devices produced in China under the European and American names and by doing so fooled television viewers. They have presented the electric broom, the cutting knife, the device that cuts vegetables and the clothes-drier as European products, yet the products delivered to consumers have been similar to those of Chinese production. It became clear on Wednesday that a couple of journalists participating in the session had also fallen in the trap of “TeleMarket”. The representative of the company was trying to justify himself with an innocent look on his face by saying that “we are not hiding the fact that our product is from China; it is written on the product.” The ECP commission decided the “TelevisionShow” INC had permitted the careless competition and confused consumers. This company was also fined 100,000 drams for confusing consumers. Let us recall that during its activity this company has already managed to receive hundreds of thousands of drams from consumers. So, 100,000 drams is a very symbolic amount for them as well.