Today, on 19 September, the Tbilisi Appeal Court upheld a ruling by the Tbilisi City Court annulling an Order of the Ministry of Finance. According to the order, the Georgian Post had been given preferential treatment [1] and the commercial activities of small-sized carriers had become practically impossible.

The above mentioned Order of the Ministry of Finance obstructed the commercial activities of specific carriers for several months resulting in financial loss. TI Georgia will file a lawsuit in the court and request that the Ministry of Finance pay compensatory damages to the carriers.

If the Ministry of Finance takes the case to the Supreme Court, this process will be protracted and the amount of the carriers’ financial losses will continue to rise. Furthermore, the damages will be paid for from the state budget, i.e. by taxpayers.

We request that the Ministry of Finance consider the future budgetary expenses and end the dispute on this matter. Especially since -according to Order #133 of the Ministry of Finance issued on 8 May 2013- the regulations annulled by the two instances of the court will be repealed anyway starting 1 January 2014.

We call on all carrier firms to refer to us if they have sustained financial losses as a result of Order #30 of the Ministry of Finance. TI Georgia expresses readiness to represent them in court if they wish to claim compensatory damages.

We would like to remind you that TI Georgia filed its first lawsuit in the court [2] regarding the annulment of said Order on 5 April 2013. The Tbilisi City Court ruled on the case on 27 May 2013. The lawyers of TI Georgia were representing Stargroup LLC,  which was directly affected by the Order.