The High Court has dismissed a claim for conspiracy and breach of statutory duty brought by Digicel against Cable & Wireless plc, four of its Caribbean subsidiaries, and Telecommunications Services of Trinidad & Tobago Ltd, save for an award of nominal damages for a breach of contract that did not cause any loss.
The claim, which was originally said to be for over £300 million, spanned seven Caribbean jurisdictions (St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and the Turks & Caicos Islands). Digicel’s allegation was that the defendants had conspired together to obstruct Digicel from entering the telecoms market in those jurisdictions. The focus of the case was on the interconnection process, which allows customers of one telecoms network to make and receive calls to/from customers of another telecoms network. Digicel alleged that the defendants had breached statutory duties contained in local legislation about the conduct of the interconnection process.
The claim culminated in a 77-day trial before Mr Justice Morgan in 2009. 43 witnesses were cross-examined.
Mr Justice Morgan’s judgment, which runs to over 500 pages, considers the telecommunications legislation in detail and provides a detailed analysis of the law of conspiracy.
Lord Grabiner QC, Edmund Nourse and Conall Patton (instructed by Slaughter and May) acted for the defendants.