The Public Services Regulatory Commission wrapped up its three-day hearing on whether to revoke the license of Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) with a 4–1 vote in favor of stripping the company of its license. The only dissenting vote came from Ara Nranyan, who submitted a separate opinion. The decision was adopted without the commission members returning for an open discussion before the vote.
During the session, non-governmental organizations defending consumer rights strongly criticized both the proposal and the recent developments around ENA. Representatives of the company’s owner, Tashir Capital, responded to the allegations. Attorney Aram Orbelyan, speaking for the owner, focused on the legal side of the process, arguing that the Constitution had been violated by the rushed legislative changes that paved the way for this outcome. A former acting director of ENA also insisted that there is no evidence in the case materials of any systematic fraudulent “additions” attributed to the company.
The hearing took place in the hall of the Competition Protection Commission, which was only available until the early afternoon and has been plagued by sound problems for several days. Throughout the three days, commission chairman Romanos Petrosyan spoke little and avoided answering journalists’ questions about what would follow a license revocation: how the Karapetyan family would be compensated, on what terms a potential sale might take place, and under what mechanism the state could invoke an overriding public interest, which the Constitution allows only with compensation. Petrosyan has promised to hold a briefing after the decision to address these issues. In her closing remarks, commission staff representative Mary Ghazaryan formally proposed revoking ENA’s licenses, a recommendation the commission ultimately endorsed.
