Armenian government agencies do not know who should monitor the sale of counterfeit disinfectants.

Hetq correspondences to these agencies are bandied back and forth between them with no clear-cut answer provided.

On January 16, Hetq wrote that counterfeit disinfectants of the Optimax brand are being sold on the Armenian market. Optimax is a concentrate that is diluted with water and used in medical institutions and beauty salons to disinfect surfaces and instruments.

On January 8, we sent inquiries to the State Revenue Committee (SRC) and the Food Safety Inspection Body requesting clarification.

The SRC responded on January 14 that operational investigative measures had been taken and that it would provide additional information about the results.

On January 20, SRC employees invited Smbat Balasanyan, head of Khachpar LLC and the official importer of Optimax, who had raised the alarm about the sale of counterfeit disinfectants, to a meeting and stated that, although confiscating the product was beyond their authority, they had visited the points of sale, confiscated a certain amount of the product, and suspended its sale.

Smbat Balasanyan had asked SRC employees to send an official letter regarding the administrative actions they had taken.

To date, neither Smbat Balasanyan nor Hetq have received an official letter regarding the SRC’s actions.

SRC employees also informed Smbat Balasanyan that they mainly conduct tax and excise control, check import documents, and the payment of customs duties and taxes. According to them, the product has been cleared, the relevant customs duties have been paid, and the SRC has fully completed its oversight functions.

On January 15, the FSIB responded that issues related to the sale of counterfeit products are outside the scope of its authority and forwarded Hetq’s inquiry to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

The Commission, in turn, forwarded the letter to the Health and Labor Inspection Body on January 22.

Hetq was then informed on January 23 that resolving the issue raised in the inquiry is outside the scope of the inspection body’s authority.

The Health and Labor Inspection Body forwarded Hetq’s inquiry to the Market Surveillance Inspection Body. We have not yet received a response from the latter.