The Communications Commission has once again deemed Caucasus Online to have violated the legislation and instructed the company to reverse the sale of its shares for the second time. The company has been given time until 31 December 2021 to submit documents proving the reversal of the sale of its shares.

Having initially sold 49% of their shares on an unlawful basis, owners of Caucasus Online then illegally sold the remaining 51% stake in the company. The Communications Commission sanctioned Caucasus Online on several occasions following the sale of the 49% stake and instructed the company to reverse the transaction. However, the company repeatedly refused to comply with the rulings of the Commission. On 22 March 2021, it transpired that the remaining 51% of the shares had again been sold without the Commission’s prior approval. Thereby, the company violated the Georgian legislation again.

On 20 May 2021, the Communications Commission instructed Caucasus Online to return 100% of its shares to the pre-sale status quo. The company has yet to comply with this ruling.

For selling company shares without the Commission’s approval, Caucasus Online was first judged to have violated the legislation on 17 October 2019 and ordered to reverse the sale. Between 17 October 2019 and 1 October 2020, administrative sanctions were placed on the company several times due to failure to rectify the violation. More specifically, Caucasus Online was fined in accordance with the Decision Ng-19-18/697 of 12 December 2019, Decision Ng-20-18/87 of 6 February 2020, Decision Ng-20-18/320 of 12 March 2020, Decision Ng-20-18/527 of 25 June 2020 and Decision Ng-20-18/652 of 20 August 2020  of the Communications Commission, and a special manager was appointed to enforce the aforementioned decisions in accordance with Article 46¹ of the Law of Georgia on Electronic Communications and the Decision Ng-20-18/747 of 1 October 2020  of the Communications Commission.