Economic entities in Armenia were fined AMD 42 million in 2019-2020, said Gegham Gevorgyan, chair of the state commission for the protection of economic competition.

He claims that total fines will not contribute to the normalization of the market situation and that penalty mechanisms should be mostly abandoned.

“We are now practicing other mechanisms,” he said adding that it’s quite successful.

Speaking about the costs of maintaining the department led by him, Gevorgyan noted that a little more than AMD 380 million were allocated from the state budget, a significant part of which went to cover expenses on salaries of employees.