IGOR ARTEMIEV: THE BETTER IS COMPETITION ON THE MARKET, THE BETTER IS FOR EVERYBODY

Head of FAS discussed common problems and antimonopoly remedies with Head of the competition authority of the Republic of Armenia

On 17 September 2019, during the VI BRICS Competition Conference, Head of FAS Igor Artemiev held talks with Chairman of the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition of the Republic of Armenia, Gegam Gevorgyan.

Igor Artemiev congratulated Gegam Gevorgyan with the appointment as Chairman of the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition of the Republic of Armenia and thanked for an Armenian delegation attending the VI BRICS Competition Conference, which also includes events under the frame of the Interstate Council on Competition Policy.

Head of FAS expressed an interest in further development of cooperation with the antimonopoly authority of Armenia, as both bilateral relations and within ICAP and the Eurasian Economic Union.

Heads of both agencies emphasized the interest in reaching an inter-departmental Agreement on Cooperation. At the same time, Igor Artemiev pointed out that recently FAS has been giving preferences to the so-called “new level” agreements, which enable use of modern mechanisms of result-oriented cooperation in investigation of antimonopoly violations and global merger consideration.

The parties discussed the issues highlighted by Gegam Gevorgyan as of interest for Armenia: cooperation with FAS on exposing and suppressing unfair competition, parallel import, digitalization of the economy.

Igor Artemiev described Russian system of pricing for medicinal drugs included in the list of vital and essential drugs, and significant results in the field of reducing prices for a number of drugs in the Russian Federation.

“We discuss problems of our countries and typically these are common issues. I believe it is expedient to determine several most important problems for our countries and the population: for example, prices for drugs, fuel, suppressing unfair competition, and do our job in any convenient format - trainings, consultations, etc. Cooperation and coordinated work is a great force, which we should try to employ”, said Igor Artemiev.

“Working all together, we will definitely achieve positive results,” concluded Gegam Gevorgyan.