Liberia: SATCON Laments Unfair Treatment in Court Case vs DStv

A legal tussle involving renowned satellite contents provider, the Digital Satellite television (DStv) on one hand and other new service providers SATCON, Nanasat, and K3 Telecoms on another is not only dragging too long than expected, it is causing anxiety, losses and hold back investments for some parties to the case.

But while those could be much of concerns, the crux of the issue at hand is that one of the defendants in the case has lamented unfair treatment, noting that the complainant is being given preferential treatment.

SATON’s Executive Vice President for Governmental Affairs, Abduallah Kamara, hearings into the case are barely heard due to a plethora of excuses that the complainant has given not to appear in court—all in an effort to further delay the case and frustrate defendants’ efforts and deplete their meager resources.

Apparently agitated by competition from later entrants to the market, Nanasat, SATCON and K3 Telecoms, DStv, on September 11, 2019, sued its competitors along with LTA at the Commercial Court at the Temple of Justice for damages.

The satellite company, which is operated in Liberia by Consolidated Group, a company owned by businessman and politician Simeon Freeman, in its suit alleged unfair competition occasioned by the pirating of contents that it legitimately owned. DStv is therefore demanding US$4 million as compensation for damages.

Consolidated Group in its lawsuit said it will indemnify the accused companies in the amount of US$4 Million from all damages and costs which they may incur as a consequence of the suit if the plaintiff fails to prosecute the case successfully.

However, vice president Kamara noted at a press conference on Thursday that DStv has been causing delay in the hearing of the case since it began four years ago.

“People compete based on the quality of service and affordability, but if DStv is continuously harassing her competitors. And the way the court proceeding is going is not really fair to us.” He said. “Since he took us to court, and every time the proceeding is ongoing, when he does not have sufficient information, we will always wait because his witnesses are in South Africa, and the court will grant that. This has happened a number of times.

"Every time we are on the case or when our lawyers are pushing, Freeman will always inform the court that he has to get his lawyer from South Africa,” he said. “We have gone to the court on more than two occasions and the DStv team has always come with excuses which the court always grants.”

Kamara however lamented unfair treatment when the court denied a request from SATCON lawyer, Koiboi Johnson, who has just returned from seeking medical attention abroad. Cllr. Johnson had asked the court to defer a hearing that is slated for Monday April 24, 2023, to a later date in order for him to fully recuperate.

“The denial of our request by the court is very strange because we wrote the court, informing the judge that our lawyer was taking a medical leave,” Kamara said. “He came back just a few weeks ago, and the court is saying that they want to resume the hearing for Monday, but our lawyer said he is still recovering.”

He added, “Our lawyer also wrote informing the court that he is recovering and would be ready for the case in a few weeks, and the court trashed it.

“So, I feel that in this case we have not been given sufficient flexibility as DStv has. Not that I am not confident in the court, but I am looking at the procedure the way it is going—it seems that all of our requests have been pushed aside or trashed.

“For that reason, we feel a little bit disenchanted and have not been given the proper space to make our case,” Kamara said.

The SATCON official noted that DStv's only aim is to frustrate her competitors, “because every time they will run to court and close other businesses, they (competitors) will be asked to pay a bond in several thousands of dollars that they have not even accumulated.”

SATCON Executive Frowns at DStv Attempt to Monopolize TV Market

DSTV is the first operator licensed by the LTA for Satellite TV services but browbeaten its monopoly with high and constraining pricing around US$90.00 per month until the coming of the others like SATCON, who are providing similar services at very relatively affordable costs (as low as US$30.00 monthly subscription) leading to access by many low-income earners. 

Kamara has since frowned on attempts to monopolize the television market through the commercial court.

“I believe that the intent of DStv is to create a monopoly over the entire Liberian market and put its citizens out of business,” he said. “If you take all your competitors to court with a US$4 million lawsuit and you know none of them can even produce one million dollars, if found guilty, will lead to only one player (DSTV) on the market and we know how expensive the price of a DStv connection is.”