Digicel may face court battle over €28m legal costs

CARIBBEAN TELECOMS operator Cable Wireless Communications may pursue Denis O’Brien’s Digicel for €28.5 million in legal costs following its victory in a court battle between the two.

The British high court in London yesterday shot down claims by Digicel that Cable Wireless Communications (CWC) had attempted to block its entry to a range of Caribbean markets, where Digicel was setting up in competition with CWC.

Digicel also argued that its competitor’s parent company had conspired with various subsidiaries in the region to hinder its entry into those territories.

Following the ruling yesterday, it emerged that CWC is considering pursuing Digicel for the costs of the 77-day high court hearing, which are estimated to run to £25 million (€28.5 million).

A Digicel spokeswoman said yesterday the company had not received any notice of a claim for costs and would not comment on estimates of the final legal bill.

The company is not ruling out an appeal, and said yesterday in a statement that it was considering its legal options.

Digicel claimed that CWC had breached statutes regulating the telecommunications business in six territories: Barbados, Cayman, St Lucia, St Vincent the Grenadines, Grenada and the Turks Caicos Islands. The company is the biggest mobile operator in the Caribbean region, but came up against CWC when it first began to expand in the region, as that group was the existing telecoms provider in most of those markets.

Digicel also claimed that Cable Wireless plc, CWC’s then parent, conspired with other companies in the group to block Digicel’s entry to various markets in the region. CWC has since been split from Cable Wireless, and there is no relationship between the two companies.

The British high court, which has jurisdiction over these states as they are part of the British Commonwealth, threw out the bulk of the claims.

It did rule that CWC in Turks and Caicos broke an agreement with Digicel, although the court said that this caused no delays, and gave nominal damages against it.

Arising out of another part of the ruling, Digicel is likely to ask Trinidad and Tobago’s regulator to investigate the operator there, TSTT, and its partner, Nortel, which the court said had conspired to produce false documents. CWC has a significant minority stake in TSTT, while the island’s government is the majority shareholder.