ARMENIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Narine Beglaryan and Anahit Aloyan, Concern Dialog
and safe use. In addition, the Armenian government’s action plan for the years 2021 to 2026 establishes as a goal the improvement of the level of personal data protection in the Republic of Armenia, particularly with the help of aligning newly adopted as well as current legal acts concerning personal data protection.
particularly in the IT and telecommunications sec - tors, where cloud computing, SaaS and IaaS models are increasingly adopted by both private companies and public institutions. Most digital service providers use their own standardised contracts tailored to the specific services they offer, which companies must accept to use those services. This shift to digitalisa - tion requires that these model contracts address the following key issues: • Data protection and confidentiality: heightened emphasis on data processing, confidentiality and information security. • Technical appendices and service levels: digital outsourcing agreements more frequently incor - porate detailed schedules on service availability, reversibility, interoperability and data portability. • Liability clauses: strengthened provisions address - ing data breaches, cybersecurity incidents and non-compliance with evolving sectoral standards, especially in finance, telecommunications and pay - ment services. • Regulatory influences: outsourcing in regulated industries, notably banking and financial services, is increasingly shaped by CBA requirements on internal risk management and IT security. As mentioned in 3.1 Standard Contract Models , tech - nology transactions and outsourcing arrangements in Armenia are generally governed by the Civil Code, pri - marily under the rules on contracts for paid provision of services and contractor agreements. There is no dedicated legislative framework for IT or outsourcing agreements; therefore, such contracts are treated as ordinary civil contracts, supplemented by sector-spe - cific laws (for example, on data protection). Armenian customer protection legislation applies to natural persons. However, in this context (and in the context of this section 4. Contract Terms ), “customer” or “client” refers to a legal entity receiving services under a civil contract, which is therefore outside the scope of customer protection regulation. 4. Contract Terms 4.1 Customer Protections
3. Model Outsourcing Contracts 3.1 Standard Contract Model
There is no industry-specific model agreement for outsourcing or technology transactions in Armenia. In practice, outsourcing relationships are governed by the general provisions of the Civil Code, in particular the rules on paid service provision contracts and con - tractor agreements. These provisions allow the parties to freely define the terms of their outsourcing arrangements, including the scope of services, performance standards, time - lines, methods of remuneration and allocation of risks. Agreements are typically negotiated on a case-by- case basis and supplemented by clauses or annexes dealing with confidentiality, data protection, liability, warranties, subcontracting and dispute resolution. As a result, outsourcing contracts in Armenia follow a customised, negotiated approach, rather than a standardised contractual model. 3.2 Alternative Contract Models In Armenia, as in many jurisdictions, the bilateral out - sourcing (paid service provision) contract remains the default model for most commercial outsourcing arrangements. Alternative structures are less common but available where strategic, regulatory or economic considerations make them suitable. In practice, these can include service contracts with subsidiaries (in- house outsourcing), joint ventures/partnerships, multi- sourcing (splitting services between several suppli - ers), build-operate-transfer arrangements, managed services/long-term outsourcing and public-private
partnerships for public services. 3.3 Digital Transformation
Digital transformation has had a gradual but notice - able effect on outsourcing transactions in Armenia,
13 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook