The Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal has fined the Pay-TV operator, Multichoice Nigeria, owners of DSTV, GOTV, N150 million for disputing the court’s jurisdiction and ordered the company to provide Nigerians with a one-month free subscription to its DStv and GOtv Packages.
A three-man panel led by Thomas Okusu, gave the ruling on Friday.
The tribunal had previously stopped Multichoice from raising subscription fees without proper notice, based on a lawsuit by Festus Onifade, an Abuja-based lawyer, who claimed the eight-day notice given for the price increase was inadequate.
Onifade had sued DStv, accusing the pay-TV of unjustly increasing subscription fees without one month’s notice to customers and leveraging on it to seek interim orders.
Counsel for Multichoice had contended that previous rulings had settled price regulation issues, while Onifade focused on the inadequate notice rather than the price hike itself, prompting the tribunal to affirm its jurisdiction and rule against Multichoice.
The court fixed July 3 for hearing of the substantive suit of the plaintiff.
