A 1 Billion-koruna Lawsuit

Cesky Mobil AS, the third-largest Czech mobile-phone company, is seeking 1.6 billion koruna ($62 million) in damages from competitors Eurotel s.r.o. and T-Mobile Czech Republic AS for allegedly abusing their market dominance. Cesky Mobil, a unit of Canada's Telesystem International Wireless Inc., filed a 1 billion-koruna lawsuit against Eurotel, the nation's largest mobile phone company, at the Prague Municipal Court, spokesman Petr Sindler said in a phone interview. It's also seeking 615 million koruna from T-Mobile Czech Republic AS, the No. 2 Czech mobile-phone company. The lawsuit has been based on the Czech Anti-Monopoly Office's decision from 2002 that Eurotel and T-Mobile were abusing their dominant position by charging higher fees for calls to Cesky Mobil's network than to their own. Eurotel is owned by Cesky Telecom AS, the largest Czech phone company, and T-Mobile is controlled by Deutsche Telekom AG.