Cable & Wireless Communications says that it has won a legal victory in the UK High Court against claims it unlawfully delayed the entry of Digicel into the Caribbean telecoms market. Mr Justice Morgan handed down a judgement in the High Court dismissing all the claims brought by Digicel, a competitor to Cable & Wireless Communications in the Caribbean, except for in the Turks & Caicos where he found a minor breach of contract but ruled it caused no delay to Digicel and thus no loss.
Mr. Justice Morgan variously describes senior executives of TSTT (which is a telecoms firm in Trinidad & Tobago part owned by Cable & Wireless Communications plc) and its contractor, Nortel, as acting "contrary to honest practices" and thereby breaking the law in Trinidad with two defined breaches of the Protection Against Unfair Competition Act 1996, and accused them of deliberately giving false or misleading evidence at the trial.
Digicel said that the outcome should be attributed to the weak regulatory frameworks in place in these Caribbean jurisdictions. Indeed, the Judge himself described the legislation as being "poorly drafted."
Tony Rice, Cable & Wireless Communications CEO commented: "This is a resounding victory for Cable & Wireless Communications. This case has been a pointless waste of time and money. It was brought by Digicel on the eve of our AGM in July 2007 amid a fanfare of publicity and a statement that its claim was for several hundreds of millions of pounds. We maintained throughout that Digicel's case was baseless, and the UK High Court has now vindicated this. I am delighted that we have won and are now free from this unnecessary distraction."
Background to the case:
The case involved claims that the Cable & Wireless Communications Group had breached the telecoms statutes in six Caribbean territories (Barbados, Cayman, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada and the Turks & Caicos Islands) which Digicel was entering as a competitor to Cable & Wireless Communications between 2002-06. Similar allegations were also made against TSTT, the Trinidad & Tobago-based telecom operator, in which Cable & Wireless Communications holds a minority stake.
Digicel also alleged senior management of Cable & Wireless plc, the then parent company of Cable & Wireless Communications Group, had been involved in a 'conspiracy' to delay its entry into these markets.
The judgement dismissed all of the claims in the seven territories and the overarching conspiracy claim with the minor exception that the Judge found a breach of a short letter agreement with Digicel in the Turks & Caicos Islands, but which he ruled caused Digicel no delay and thus no loss.
Cable & Wireless Communications says that it will now seek the reimbursement of its costs of defending the matter.
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