The Court of Appeals in Rome dismissed claims brought by a telecom operator against Cleary Gottlieb client Telecom Italia S.p.A. for an alleged abuse of dominant position.
Teleque, an emerging operator in the calling card market, claimed that Telecom Italia engaged in abusive behavior by allegedly applying discriminatory access conditions that favored its own division over Teleque’s rival calling card marketing division. Teleque also claimed that, even if failed to pay for the services, Telecom Italia could not enforce its rights under the interconnection agreement.
In dismissing both claims, the Court accepted evidence showing equal treatment and upheld Cleary Gottlieb’s arguments on Telecom Italia’s entitlement to exercise its contractual rights and the Court’s lack of jurisdiction to analyze a contractual claim in proceedings based solely on an alleged antitrust violation.