Digicel (St. Lucia) Ltd & Ors v Cable & Wireless Plc & Ors

Facts

The eight Digicel claimants alleged that they had been wrongfully obstructed by the incumbent monopoly telecommunications operators, the Cable & Wireless defendants, in their attempts to establish mobile networks in seven West Indian jurisdictions. After a trial lasting all but 80 days between May and November 2009 in the Chancery Division, Mr Justice Morgan gave judgment on 15 April 2010, awarding nominal damages for a breach of contract claim relating to the Turks and Caicos Islands but otherwise dismissing all claims not already abandoned during the trial, and ordering the claimants to pay costs by his order of 23 April 2010. He was not asked for permission to appeal. The appeal was confined to Trinidad and Tobago and brought only by the sixth claimant, Digicel (Trinidad & Tobago) Limited, which had launched its mobile network on 6 April 2006 in competition with the incumbent, the sixth defendant. Its claim rested on section 4 of the Protection against Unfair Competition Act 1996, contending that the respondent had dishonestly delayed interconnection by up to four months, notably by pressure brought to bear on the equipment supplier Nortel Networks. The judge found two acts contrary to honest practices but held that neither had caused any loss. Mummery LJ adjourned the permission application to the full court, with the appeal to follow if permission were granted.