Appeal court backs telecoms operators in licence fee dispute with Hong Kong government
HKT, the largest telecommunications network operator in Hong Kong, is considering possible civil action in a bid to recover excessive payments made to the government
The Court of Final Appeal (CFA) has ruled against the Hong Kong government for wrongfully overcharging telecommunications network operators on the licence fees that they pay every year.
The judgment could pave the way for the affected telecommunications services providers to take further legal action to recover the excess payments they have made.
For the government, it may entail a major review of its annual financial statements stretching back more than a decade.
In the ruling handed down on Wednesday, the CFA’s six justices unanimously said the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development and industry regulator the Communications Authority “fell into specified errors of law” in prescribing telecommunications licence fees.
HKT had argued that there was no legal justification for the government to prescribe licence fees that would significantly exceed the costs of the affected telecommunications network operators, and to do so would be “a form of tax” and go beyond the scope of the applicable laws.
The fees collected are used to recover the authority’s costs in administering the licences and go into a trading fund.