LIME undaunted by court ruling in Digicel’s favour

Telecommunications company LIME says it is undaunted by Thursday's court ruling in its ongoing war with rival Digicel.

Supreme Court Judge, Justice Ingrid Mangatal, dismissed an application by LIME for an injunction barring Digicel from offering cheaper rates to its landline customers.

Digicel began offering landline services to its customers, more than a year ago.

LIME filed a lawsuit in October last year accusing Digicel of abusing its dominant position.

A statement from LIME says Thursday's court ruling in no way affects the substantive case against Digicel.

According to Camile Facey, LIME’s Regional Vice President for Legal, Regulatory & Corporate Affairs, the company looks forward to the hearing of a lawsuit filed to protect its landline customers from Digicel’s anti-competitive pricing.

LIME says in January 2009, Digicel started to charge LIME’s landline customers as much as $8.50 per minute to call Digicel mobile customers while charging its own landline customers only $4 per minute.    

LIME is maintaining that this is discriminatory pricing as well as a margin squeeze, and is accusing Digicel of acting in an anti-competitive manner.

LIME is seeking to recover $100 million in damages which it claims was lost because of Digicel’s pricing structure.