Settlement of a decade-long dispute over fibre optics

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Settlement of a decade-long dispute over fibre optics

Lawyers from Wardyński & Partners advised Danish-Polish Telecommunications Group I/S in proceedings to enforce claims of EUR 550 million against Telekomunikacja Polska SA.

In January 2012, Telekomunikacja Polska SA and the Danish company Danish-Polish Telecommunications Group I/S, controlled by GN Store Nord A/S and TDC A/S, entered into a settlement bringing to an end a dispute that had lasted over 10 years concerning the fees for TPSA’s use of fibre optic lines built by DPTG in 1991–1993.

Under the settlement, TPSA paid DPTG EUR 550 million, and DPTG withdrew actions seeking injunctions or execution in judicial proceedings pending in several countries, including Austria, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and the United States. (The proceedings were the subject of current reports filed with the stock exchange by TPSA and by the companies controlling DPTG.) The settlement ended a dispute pending between DPTG and TPSA since 2001, which was heard under Uncitral rules by an arbitration court in Vienna.

For over two years, lawyers from Wardyński & Partners—adwokat Tomasz Wardyński, attorney-at-law Konrad Grotowski and adwokat Jan Ciećwierz—advised DPTG and Austrian lawyers from the Wolf Theiss firm representing DPTG in the Vienna arbitration proceeding. Together with lawyers from Salans, Wardyński & Partners also represented DPTG and GN Store Nord A/S in proceedings before the Polish courts.

TPSA’s advisers in Poland included lawyers from Linklaters.