The Hague Rules In Favor Of Algeria, Rejects Italian Consutel Group’s Complaint

The International Court of Justice “The Hague” rejected all the complaints that were submitted by the Italian “Consutel Group SPA” against Algeria Telecom, to rule on nullity in a final ruling in favour of the Algerian state while rejecting the compensations that were claimed by the Italian company, estimated at $ 408.880 million, and charging it with the full legal expenses.

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunication revealed, in a statement, on Saturday, that the case that was the subject to arbitration before the Permanent Court of The Hague between the Algerian state and the Italian company, Consutel Groupe, ended with the issuance of a final ruling in favour of the Algerian state.

The source explained that the Hague Court ruled to reject the demands of the complaining party “Consutel Groupe”, a company with shares under liquidation, including the payment of a sum of $ 408,880 million in compensation for the alleged damages suffered by this company, which claimed that the practices of Algerian Telecom company which belongs to the Algerian state caused the deterioration of its economic position, which would have caused SPEC-COM company and the parent company Consutel to fail and have filed an international arbitration complaint against it, but the court, in its final decision, demonstrated the opposite of the complaint.

As a result, the Hague court sentenced the Italian company to pay the court fees and costs and the permanent court of arbitration and all the costs of representation.

The Ministry explained that the origin of the dispute dates back to a partnership agreement that was concluded on November 3, 2007, between the Algerian Telecom Company and SPEC-COM, which provided for the provision, installation and operation of high-flow FTTX equipment and triple use of the category of urban Internet networks, then Consutel filed an ad hoc arbitration case on June 5, 2017, against Algeria, following the provisions of Article 8 of the Bilateral Investment Treaty, at the arbitral tribunal, and after long procedures, the case was successful in favour of Algeria.