On December 26, 2025, the prosecutor submitted to the competent court the files of the criminal proceedings concerning the directors of seven tourism companies accused of anti-competitive activity along with an approved indictment.

The criminal proceedings examined by the Investigative Committee revealed that the heads of seven companies engaged in tourism activities in the Republic of Armenia intended to push another tourism company out of the market through anti-competitive activity.

In particular, as a result of reaching an anti-competitive agreement, the heads of the seven tourism companies refused to sell airline tickets to the aforementioned tourism company and to cooperate with partners working with that company. As a consequence of these anti-competitive actions, the mentioned company, being subject to restrictions on competition, was unable to properly carry out its tourism activities. After transporting 130 Armenian tourists to the city of Hurghada, Egypt, it was unable to organize their return to the Republic of Armenia.

In order to resolve the issue, based on the Government Decision No. 933-N, dated July 26, 2019, AMD 47,198,000 was allocated from the reserve fund of the Government of the Republic of Armenia to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia for the provision of services to transport about 130 citizens left in Egypt back to Armenia, and pursuant to the nGovernment Decision No. 983-N, dated August 1, 2019, an additional AMD 5,838,000 were allocated to the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure for the same purpose.

On December 16, 2025, the prosecutor initiated public criminal prosecution against the directors of the seven tourism companies, and on December 26, 2025, submitted the files of the criminal proceedings to the competent court.

At the same time, in order to recover the damage caused to the Republic of Armenia, the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Armenia filed a civil claim with the court. By the court decision, dated December 25, 2025, AMD 53 million will be recovered in favor of the state budget of the Republic of Armenia as the amount of the obligation.

Notice:  A person charged with any crime shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty in the manner prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedure Code—by the judgment came into legal force.