{"id":45478,"date":"2013-09-09T10:14:46","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T08:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=45478"},"modified":"2013-09-09T11:01:32","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T09:01:32","slug":"blue-label-telkom-arbitration-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/45478\/blue-label-telkom-arbitration-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Label, Telkom arbitration ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The North Gauteng High Court has set aside an arbitration process between\u00a0<a title=\"Blue Label Telecoms\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/2998-Blue-Label-Telecoms\">Blue Label Telecoms, <\/a><a title=\"Telkom\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1637-Telkom\">Telkom<\/a>, and its former subsidiary,\u00a0<a title=\"Multi-Links\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/10009-Multi-Links\">Multi-Links<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2011, Africa Prepaid Services Nigeria (APSN), a subsidiary of Blue Label, launched<br \/>\narbitration proceedings against Multi-Links\u00a0Telecommunications (MLT), for payment of\u00a0US$457 million (R4.58 billion) arising out of the cancellation of a &#8220;super dealer agreement&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Telkom sold its shareholding in Multi-Links to HIP Oils Topco in October 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement, APSN acquired the right to market and distribute a range of products for MLT in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0the arbitration proceedings Multi-Links\u00a0counter-claimed against Blue Label&#8217;s subsidiary for payment of the sum of\u00a0US$123 million.<\/p>\n<p>Evidence in the arbitration proceedings was due to be presented in November 2012, but was\u00a0postponed.\u00a0The arbitration proceedings were due to recommence in February 2014.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2013, Multi-Links launched an application in the High Court in terms of the South African Arbitration\u00a0Act to set aside the arbitration agreement contained in the Super Dealer Agreement.<\/p>\n<p>APSN\u00a0launched a counter application for an order declaring that the High Court had no jurisdiction in\u00a0the action.<\/p>\n<p>On 19 August 2013, the High Court heard argument in relation to the stay application and the\u00a0jurisdiction application.<\/p>\n<p>And on 6 September 2013 the High Court delivered judgement in terms of which:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The jurisdiction application was dismissed with costs;<\/li>\n<li>The stay application was granted with costs;<\/li>\n<li>Telkom and MLT were ordered to pay APSN\u00b4s costs in the attachment application on the\u00a0attorney and client scale;<\/li>\n<li>The Court directed that the question of the High Court&#8217;s jurisdiction over APSN in the action\u00a0should be determined by the trial court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to Blue Label, APSN is in the process of considering the judgement with a view to deciding whether it should apply\u00a0for leave to appeal against the dismissal of the jurisdiction application and the grant of the stay\u00a0application.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The High Court did not make any determination on the merits of the claims in the arbitration and the\u00a0action,&#8221; Blue Label said in a statement on Monday (9 September).<\/p>\n<p>The group noted that the arbitration proceedings will not continue in February\u00a02014, while APSN will either pursue its claim against Multi-Links in the High Court or in the arbitration\u00a0proceedings should it pursue and succeed with an appeal against the judgement of the High\u00a0Court.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on Blue Label Telecom<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Blue Label arbitration postponed\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/29805\/blue-label-arbitration-postponed\/\"><strong>Blue Label arbitration postponed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Blue Label hits back at Telkom claims\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/40031\/blue-label-hits-back-at-telkom-claims\/\"><strong>Blue Label hits back at Telkom claims<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Mexico losses weigh on Blue Label\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/44454\/mexico-losses-weigh-on-blue-label\/\"><strong>Mexico losses weigh on Blue Label<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The North Gauteng High Court has ruled on the arbitration process between Blue Label Telecoms, Telkom, and its former subsidiary, Multi-Links.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":45497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1382,26,6610,65],"class_list":["post-45478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-blue-label-telecoms","tag-headline","tag-multi-links-telecommunications","tag-telkom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45478"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45540,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45478\/revisions\/45540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}