At a hearing today, a judge said that the appeals case by the founders of Telegate AG over its directory data overcharging claims against Deutsche Telekom AG might have little chance to secure a favorable decision. Founders Klaus Harisch and Peter Wuensch are seeking a reversal of a lower court ruling made last year that denied the compensation they have demanded from the German phone company over allegations that the latter overcharged them for directory data, Bloomberg said.
Presiding Judge Juergen Kuehnen added that the assessment of the appellate court in Dusseldorf, Germany is preliminary and could be subject to change following deliberations. He also stated that assuming that Deutsche Telekom did misuse its market position by bloating data prices, the damages sought by the Telegate founders is not covered by anti-competition laws that prohibit that.
"The founders didn't buy the data, only Telegate did. Antitrust rules only protect consumers or buyers, not shareholders of the buyers," Kuehnen said.
Bloomberg said that in the last decade, Deutsche Telekom has faced lawsuits filed by directory-service providers who said that the data the former phone monopoly in Germany was required to provide was expensive. In 2012, the top civil court of the country had backed to other lower court decisions that require the Bonn-based firm to pay a combined 97.2 million euros in overcharged fees and legal costs back.
In the Telegate appeals case, the founders argue that their share values had dropped because of overcharging practiced by Deutsche Telekom. Moreover, the plaintiffs also said that the overcharging had curbed the company's profits, which had led to the founders selling their stakes at a lower value.
On the other hand, Kuehnen said that the founders personlly cannot rely on antitrust law, but Telegate can as it is a competitor of Deutsche Telekom and is directly affected.
