T-Hrvatski Telekom, Croatia’s leading telecommunications provider, announces that a legal action has been filed against the Company by the City of Zagreb, claiming ownership of the distribution telecommunications infrastructure (DTI) in the area of the City of Zagreb and seeking compensation of HRK 120 million (€16.9 million) plus statutory interest.
T-Hrvatski Telekom will defend itself vigorously against all claims against it and believes that this action is without merit, since T-HT and not the City of Zagreb built most of the DTI in the area of the City of Zagreb.
In addition, the action of the City of Zagreb has even less merit after the new Law on Electronic Communications, which entered into force in July 2008, resolved the matter of use of the DTI and its lease to third parties.
The Law introduced the new legal institute called Right of Way, which provides that the operator who built the DTI has the right to use and rent that DTI to third parties.
Under the Law, the owner of the land is obliged to refrain from any action that could interfere with those rights of the operator. Therefore, T-HT as the operator that built the vast majority of DTI in the City of Zagreb has usage and other rights over that DTI. The City of Zagreb, as owner of the land, is entitled only to receive compensation for the use of the land and not for use of the DTI itself. The amount of that compensation shall be, pursuant to the Law, prescribed by the national regulatory authority.
T-HT therefore rejects this legal action as being without merit.