Doing Business In... 2025

ARMENIA LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Aram Orbelyan, Narine Beglaryan, Artur Hovhannisyan, Lilit Karapetyan, Sarkis Knyazyan and Shushanik Stepanyan, Concern Dialog

Duration of Assessment The Commission’s concentration assessment process lasts three months. Based on the Com - mission’s reasoned decision, the three-month period may be extended to another three months. In addition, there is a simplified assessment pro - cedure for mixed concentration and concentra - tion within a group of persons. In this case, the assessment procedure lasts one month. Liability Failure to declare the concentration as stipulated by the Law on the Protection of Economic Com - petition shall lead to the imposition of a fine of up to AMD5 million. The fine imposed for enacting a prohibited con - centration shall be up to 10% of the turnover of the preceding financial year. Also, enacted prohibited concentrations shall be subject to liquidation (annulment, cessation) according to the procedure defined by the leg - islation. 6.3 Cartels The Law on the Protection of Economic Compe - tition prohibits restrictive agreements and prac - tices. According to this Law, anti-competitive agreements are those transactions concluded between economic entities; their oral or written agreements; direct or indirectly agreed actions or behaviour; and decisions made by business associations that lead to or may lead to restric - tion, prevention or prohibition of competition. Restrictive agreements and practices can be: • between economic entities that are potential or actual competitors operating in the same

• where the applicable financial thresholds are met, specifically: (a) income thresholds (based on the previous financial year): (i) the combined income of the parties to the concentration is at least AMD4 billion; or (ii) the income of at least one of the par - ties is at least AMD3 billion. (b) asset thresholds (based on the previous financial year or at the time of filing the declaration): (i) the combined asset value of the par - ties is at least AMD4 billion; or (ii) the asset value of at least one of the parties is at least AMD3 billion. (c) These thresholds also apply where one or more participants were not active in the previous financial year or have been ac - tive for less than 12 months. • where one of the participants in the con - centration holds a dominant position in any product market in Armenia. In all such cases, the transaction is subject to mandatory prior declaration, and may not be implemented or closed until clearance is granted by the Commission. 6.2 Merger Control Procedure The concentration of economic entities is sub - ject to notification before it takes effect. For the assessment of a concentration, the participants submit an application and declaration. The dec - laration should contain the following information: (i) the purpose of the concentration and (ii) infor - mation about the participants (name, address, annual financial statements of the activity, vol - umes of goods sold during the previous year, etc).

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