Legislative blow to monopolies. Khachatur Sukiasyan is against it

MPs of the RA NA “My Step” faction Babken Tunyan, Hayk Gevorgyan, Gevorg Papoyan, Tigran Karapetyan, Karen Hambardzumyan and Argishti Mekhakyan put into circulation the original project to amend the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On Geographical Indications”.

It is proposed to replace the word “except” with the words “including” before the words “natural and mineral waters” in part 2 of Article 1 of the Law HO-60-N of May 22, 2010 (hereinafter referred to as the Law) of the Republic of Armenia “On Geographical Indications”.

What and why is it proposed to change?

The amendment to the RA Law “On Geographical Indications” is due to the fact that under the existing legislative solutions, the business entity that registered the name of a geographical location as a trademark has the opportunity to prohibit the business entity that sells products produced in the given geographical location from using the name of the given geographical place in its trademark or other means of personalization, which has a negative effect on the competitive situation in the field of sale of natural and mineral waters, leading to the given product market increasing concentration.

In other words, according to the current legislation, several business entities have an advantage compared to their competitors, which contradicts the “Constitution of the Republic of Armenia” and the principle of free and equal economic competition guaranteed by the Law “On the Protection of Economic Competition of the Republic of Armenia”.

It is proposed to extend the right of legal protection established by the law “On Geographical Indications” also to natural and mineral waters.

Adoption of the project will enable many competing companies operating in this market and to be opened in the future, which will comply with other conditions of the law, will be able to use the geographical name on the product they produce, which will lead to a decrease in market concentration, this artificial obstacle created for the development of small companies will disappear.

Mineral waters and Khachatur Sukiasyan’s denial

It is noted that as a result of this change, the monopoly of “Jermuk Group” will disappear. Some websites wrote today that this change is for the sake of businessman Khachatur Sukiasyan. Moreover, they stated that “Sil Group” will become “Bjni” after the changes. But this cannot be for a simple reason: to use the name of the place on mineral water, you need to have a factory and a well in the same village or city. And in Bjni village there is only 1 factory and 1 well, which belongs to the current “Bjni” company, that is, the legislative change cannot have any effect on “Bjni”.

Businessman Khachatur Sukiasyan, who is one of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s political comrades-in-arms, also touched on the topic. made a post on his Facebook page about the news related to him regularly recently.

He stated on his Facebook page that he was one of the initiators of the current law. “I myself would be against the proposed changes, because the current law allows to ensure the popularity of the product type according to the geographical locations of Armenia and the development of the institute of brands.

For those who are not familiar with the law, let me give a simple example to make my point clear. For example, the wine factory operating in Tavush marz cannot produce wine under the name “Areni”, and the brandy factory of Proshyan cannot produce wine under the “Ijevan” brand. This law protects the rights of both consumers and producers.

Being an advocate of freedom of speech, I once again feel pain that by spreading such misinformation, a number of mass media are discrediting the role of the press and freedom of speech in Armenia,” the businessman wrote.