Supreme Court annuls £20 million fine against CyTA

THE board of CytA was due to meet yesterday afternoon to asses the implications of a Supreme Court decision cancelling a £20 million fine imposed on the telecommunications authority 18 months ago.

A CyTA spokesman said it was too early to tell if the authority would be refunded the £20 million it had been fined after being found guilty by the Protection of Competition Committee of making “super profits” on the backs of its customers in August 2002.

CyTA was ordered to pay the £20 million fine and introduce lower rates, because, in the opinion of the Committee, the authority had been overcharging its customers for years.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled the fine be overturned because of procedural irregularities at the Protection of Competition Committee at the time the decision was made. CyTA lawyers had argued that one member of the Committee had attended some of the meetings to discuss the issue and had been absent from others.

CyTA brought three procedural charges to the Supreme Court plus the essence of the case, which was that a request by CyTA to deem the original decision unconstitutional on the grounds that the Protections of Competition Committee did not have the right to impose large administrative fees.

A CyTA spokesman said the Court had only got as far as the first procedural complaint and had not touched the essence of the case. “If the court finds the procedures are flawed, they never go into the real issue,” he said.

Whether or not the money will be returned remained to be seen, the spokesman said.

“If the decision stands and the Committee doesn’t appeal…”
Asked to comment on the possibility that the government may be forced to return the £20 million, Finance Minister Marcos Kyprianou, speaking from Berlin told Phileleftheros newspaper that the government would discuss the matter with the authority.

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