Durrant Pate/ Contributor

Jamaica’s two telecommunications giants, Digicel and Flow have lost round one in an anti-trust lawsuit filed by pioneering Caribbean media and entertainment group VertiCast.

The Supreme Court has struck down the application filed by the telecoms giants to throw out the lawsuit on legal grounds. In siding with VertiCast Media Group, the court ordered that the case should proceed.

In its oral decision late last week dismissing Digicel’s application, the court ruled that costs for those proceedings are to be paid by Digicel to VertiCast.

As a result, the matter is set to move forward on February 19, 2025, with a case management hearing.

In April this year, VertiCast Media sued both Digicel and Flow alleging they engaged in anti-competitive practices regarding Verticast’s attempts to establish itself as the region’s broadcaster for the English Premier League.

Verticast acquired the broadcast rights for the world’s most popular league in 2022, beating Digicel, the previous rights holder, to the lucrative property. Flow, owned by Liberty Latin America group, was the previous holder. 

It is being alleged by VertiCast that the two telecoms giants have been frustrating the process for the company to establish itself in providing the English Premier League live to its customers. 

VertiCast is claiming that both Digicel and Flow employed anti-competitive practices in excluding VertiCast channels from their cable networks despite reaching deals with dozens of smaller cable providers.