European Court of Justice: Telekom entitled to millions in compensation

This will certainly please Telekom’s coffee coffers. After the court of the European Union reduced an already issued penalty payment of the telecommunications group in the aftermath, there is now namely a compensation in the amount of 1.75 million euros.

Telecom vs. EU Commission

But how does the compensation come about? The focus of the consideration is a matter that occurred years ago. In 2014, Telekom was slapped with a hefty fine of just under 31 million euros. The reason for this was the presumed dominant position that the company held and abused in Slovakia in the view of the EU Commission. Naturally, the telecommunications company defended itself against the accusations and took legal action. Although the Internet giant had already paid the required fine, it still considered itself confident of victory.

In 2018, the court of the European Union issued its verdict. It upheld the accusations of the EU Commission. However, with restrictions. The court ordered the Commission to reduce the required fine. Instead of the 31 million euros originally demanded, only 19 million euros in fines should be demanded. Naturally, the Commission complied with the judges’ demand and promptly repaid Telekom the EUR 12 million it had overpaid. In doing so, however, the EU panel “forgot” one little thing….

Serious interest on arrears

What the EU Commission wanted to sweep under the table without further ado was the default interest. Over the four years, a hefty 1.75 million euros had been accumulated. It is understandable that Deutsche Telekom did not want to accept this and immediately demanded its rights. However, the Commission did not agree and denied Deutsche Telekom’s request. Deutsche Telekom took legal action against this and has now been ruled in the right by the Court of Justice of the European Union. However, it is doubtful whether this ruling is final. After all, the EU Commission now has the option of going to the next higher instance in the form of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Nothing more than interest

Telekom obviously sensed an opportunity to get even more out of the legal dispute. Without further ado, the company demanded extensive damages in addition to the default interest. However, the court did not uphold this claim. After all, Deutsche Telekom was unable to provide any evidence of any damages.