Vodafone Seeking $940 Million in Damages from Telefonica

Vodafone Group has confirmed media reports that it is seeking damages of US$940 million from Spain's Telefonica  for an alleged abuse of its dominant position in the Spanish phone market. The company is currently seeking a court ruling to confirm the amount of compensation it is due following a previous ruling it won against Telefonica.

The claim goes back to apparent actions by Telefonica between 1995 and 1999 which affected the business of the Airtel mobile network - later acquired by Vodafone. The Supreme Court in Spain upheld a complaint from Vodafone in May 2006 but did not issue a ruling on how much compensation should be paid.

The EUR670 million (US$940 million) figure was independently calculated by consultancy Nera in a report.

Vodafone warned that the final decision could still take a couple of years to be decided.

Figures from the Mobile World subscriber database shows that Vodafone ended the first half of this year with an estimated 15 million subscribers, compared to 23.2 million for Telefonica.

Posted to the site on 15th September 2008