Court rules in favour of CiF, calls on Telefònica to pay damages

foto consell premsaThe legal offices of the Formentera Council have announced the administration will receive 6,000 euros in damages from the Telefònica company for a four-month delay in provision of services. On 30 September the second court of Palma dismissed an administrative appeal lodged in contentious court by Telefònica which took issue with a ruling of the Formentera Council’s government commission. As head of CiF legal services Àngel Navarro explained, the commission had ruled in favour of serving Telefònica – the company awarded the contract to provide the Council's telecom services – with two 3,000-euro fines for infractions classified molt greus (‘very serious’). The court found Telefònica had indeed failed to comply with the timeline established in the contract signed by the two parties.

The contract was made official on the first of September 2014, from which time Telefònica had two months – or until the beginning of November – to fully implement telecom services. Those services were ultimately not in place until six months after the contract’s signing. The court sentence states that failure caused the Council damages that were «evident and unquestionable damages». In the same ruling, Telefònica is ordered to bear the legal expenses – up to a màximum of 1,500 euros – occasioned by the process. According to the Council’s legal services, the ruling is binding and cannot be appealed.