YEREVAN, MAY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. At the May 2 sitting, the RA State Commission on Protection of Economic Competition made a decision to stop the legal proceedings initiated based on complainst of K-Telecom and ArmenTel companies against each other. It is noted in K-Telecom's complaint that ArmenTel's establishing the per-minute tariff of 27 drams for its subscribers using the "Family and Friends" package is an instance of market price dumping and monopoly position abuse. According to the complaint of ArmenTel, corporate subscribers to K-Telecom's "Optima+" package, as well as natural persons are offered tariffs that are not included in the tariff packages officially published by this company. Later the companies withdrew their complaints and requested to stop the legal proceedings. The commission demanded that the two companies present their reasons for withdrawing their complaints. During an examination, the commission revealed that in commercials about the "Family and Frineds" package the matter concerns the per-minute tariff of 27 drams but it is not mentioned that a subscriber payment of 300 drams is required as well. Considering this as a manifestation of bad-faith competition and an attempt to mislead subscribers, the commission imposed a fine of 100 thousand drams (about 280 dollars) on ArmenTel. Director General of ArmenTel Oleg Bliznyuk said that the indicated advertisement is about the tariff of one service and not the whole package. In his words, the matter is not in the amount of the sum and it is not ruled out that after familiarizing itself with the commission's decision, ArmenTel will dispute it in court.

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