The Albanian incumbent telco ALBtelecom has issued a critical statement on the rebranding of AMC to Telekom Albania earlier this month.
Signed by its CEO Erkan Tabak, it says: “Usage of the name of Albanian Telecom by other companies along with all possible versions of it or any other name which would directly invoke the Albanian Telecom name and their direct translations is absolutely forbidden according to the Albanian commercial laws in force and the European Union directives.
“Albanian Telecom is not only a company name, but also the historical property of the Albanian State. The fact that the registration of the name of Telekom Albania, which highly resembles Albanian Telecom with only a reverse wording, is not only against the commercial laws in force, but also against the codes of QKR and the practices of the Competition Authority”.
ALBtelecom continues: “As a consequence of the above reasons, it is quite surprising for ALBtelecom to see the official usage and launch of its name by another company. However, despite above, we still believe that this is not a deliberate action, but rather a point which was overlooked within the institution.
“ALBtelecom will be ready to make use of its legal rights on this subject, however has full confidence that related changes will be made so that there will be no need for any such legal action”.
ALBtelecom, which was known as Telekomi Shqiptar prior to its privatisation and is still 20% owned by the Albanian state, has roots going back 104 years.
