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(CNS): The utilities regulator, OfReg, is looking to fine local telecommunications company Infinity Broadband Ltd, known as C3, for failing to pay its annual fees and comply with the obligation to submit financial reports. In a press release this week, the regulator said it had issued repeated enforcement notices but the company had not met its longstanding licence obligations.
However, C3, the only Caymanian-owed telecom company whose shareholders include Premier Wayne Panton, is challenging the demand for fees in the courts. It disputes OfReg’s authority to collect licence fees and is, rather, demanding that the regulator gives back the money that C3 has already paid in previous fees.
OfReg said it had issued an enforcement notice that lists the repeated failures of C3 to pay the fees and its failure to submit its audited financial reports. The regulator also issued a notice outlining the demands for payment of outstanding fees, including any interest accrued, and the proposed imposition of fines for the various breaches.
OfReg said that licence fees are collected from all information and communications technology (ICT) licensees comprising two parts: a royalty fee that OfReg collects on behalf of the government and a regulatory fee that funds the cost of regulating the ICT sector.
Following several reminders and requests sent to C3, OfReg issued the first notice over a year ago in July 2022 setting out its failure to pay its licence fees, which at that time totalled over CI$500,000, including interest. At that time C3 had also failed to submit its required audited financials for 2021.
C3 challenged OfReg’s authority to collect the licence fees, even though this is set out in the ICT licence. OfReg said it continued with its enforcement action in the face of the challenge and issued a final determination in August confirming OfReg’s position that C3 was, and remains, obligated to pay the fees and submit reports.
“As such C3’s failures amounted to a breach of its licence,” the regulator said. “As a consequence, OfReg issued C3 with a further notice on intended fines for the breaches beyond any demand to pay the outstanding fees.”
C3 has now begun a legal challenge. CNS contacted Managing Director Randy Merren, who told us that he was “unfortunately unable to comment” on the issue. There are no details of the case listed on the court website, as it appears the case has been sealed, preventing the public from seeing the claims made by C3.
Since the last enforcement notice, C3 has submitted its outstanding audited financial reports but OfReg said it has not paid any licence fees for the last year.
See the redacted enforcement notice from OfReg here.
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