The Repeated Large-Scale Fine Imposed by the Supervisory Body Was Annulled

• 2022-03-28

By the decision of the Health and Labor Inspectorate of the Republic of Armenia, the claimant was held administratively liable under the first part of Article 47.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Armenia, with a fine of 18,900,000 Armenian Drams.
According to the decision, the claimant imported and sold unregistered medications in the Republic of Armenia, thereby violating the provisions of the "Drugs Law" of Armenia and the regulations regarding the import and export of drugs and pharmaceutical products.
After analyzing and evaluating all the evidence obtained in the case, the Administrative Court of Armenia, based on comprehensive, thorough, and objective investigation, found that the claim should be upheld.
The claimant was subject to administrative liability for the most severe violation, which was the importation of drugs.
The court noted that the issue in this case is the applicability of Paragraph 4 of Article 37 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, in connection with the respondent’s argument that a verification was necessary to detect and confirm the violations in question.
In light of the applicable legal provisions, the court stated that additional administrative actions, which could be considered a verification, are not necessary to reveal the importation of drugs into Armenia in violation of the country’s laws.
Therefore, when imposing administrative liability for the violation of importing drugs into Armenia in violation of Armenian legislation, the time period for calculating the administrative liability cannot be conducted according to the procedures established by Paragraph 4 of Article 37 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. The time limit for imposing liability for the violations in question must be calculated according to the general rules, that is, the two-month period stipulated by Paragraph 1 of Article 37 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
The examination of the evidence obtained in the case shows that the necessary list for the importation of drugs into Armenia was provided to the respondent by the State Revenue Committee (SRC) on July 9, 2018 (despite the fact that, according to the regulations, information regarding drugs imported into Armenia in May should have been provided by the last working day of June).
In the court’s view, the information provided was sufficient and necessary to initiate administrative proceedings and gather evidence for issuing an administrative act under Articles 251 and 252 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Armenia.
Thus, the court found the respondent's argument—that the violation of importing drugs into Armenia in violation of the law, as stipulated by Article 47.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, could not have been revealed without conducting a verification procedure—to be unfounded.
Based on the above reasoning and analysis, the court concluded that the contested administrative act was unlawful under the first part of Article 63 of the Law of Armenia on "The Fundamentals of Administrative Procedure and Administrative Proceedings," and thus it was subject to annulment.

Note:
The decision of the Administrative Court of Armenia in Case No. VD/12381/05/18 has entered into legal force.