Fip.am files a lawsuit against Yerevan Subway

Fact Investigation Platform has filed a lawsuit against “Karen Demirchyan Yerevan Subway” CJSC.

The National Security Service has recently launched large-scale inspections at the Yerevan Subway. In this regard, there are reports in the press that most of the abuses are related to the lease contracts for lands under Yerevan Subway and related corruption risks.

Fact Investigation Platform sent an inquiry to “Karen Demirchyan Yerevan Subway” CJSC, asking for land lease contract values and list of leasing organizations.

However, the Yerevan Subway refused to provide the requested information, reasoning that those are documents containing commercial secrets.

However, according to Article 141 (1) of the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia, “Information is an official, commercial or bank secret when it has an actual or potential commercial value by virtue of it being unknown to third persons, there is no free access thereto on legal basis, and the holder of the information takes measures for the protection of its confidentiality.”

It can be directly derived from the content of the article that the information can be considered a commercial secret if:

1. It is unknown to third parties,
2. by virtue of being unknown to third parties, it has an actual or potential commercial value,
3. The information is related to the organization’s business activity,
4. There is no possibility to freely access it on legal basis,
5. Information holder takes measures for protection of its confidentiality.

The possession of the information required by the Fact Investigation Platform cannot be used by another competitor to obtain profit. Thus, this information cannot have any commercial value.

And since the Yerevan Subway is a state agency under the jurisdiction of Yerevan Municipality, a question arises as to why the public should not be aware of the value of the lease contracts and the leasing companies.

Taking into consideration the aforementioned circumstances and illegal refusal to provide information, Fact Investigation Platform is applying to court with a claim to subject the agency to administrative liability.