Competition Protection Commission Initiates Proceedings Against Two Operators Regarding 'City Bike'

The Competition Protection Commission has initiated proceedings against individual entrepreneur Alisa Hovakimyan and the Limited Liability Company 'City Bikes' based on apparent indicators of unfair competition involving misleading the public. This was reported by the Commission's press secretary, Ani Smbatyan.

The reason for this action involves the various social media accounts bearing different names related to 'citibike', which have disseminated the following statements: offering investments by purchasing VIP equipment, promising seemingly unrealistic high returns for invested funds, claiming that 'Our Citi Bike is sponsored by the world's largest Citibank,' which apparently does not correspond to reality, and asserting that 'We represent the American CitiBike company,' which also does not seem to hold true.

It is noteworthy that 'Hetq' had uncovered that the website titled 'City Bike' (citibike.am) offers investment opportunities with promises of earning money through interest returns on investments. If an investor invites friends to register using their code, they would also receive money from those registrations. This scheme reminiscent of a financial pyramid.

Additionally, the site claimed to operate under the name of the well-known American City bike company, stating that when people invested, the American company would use the funds to acquire new bikes, providing users with returns from renting them out. Users' accounts were blocked without reason, and they all received a single response: 'Contact your supervisor.' When people wrote to the 'supervisors,' they did not respond to emails or continued to block them.