C3 secures legal hearing over CI$1.4M unpaid fees
(CNS): Internet provider Infinity Broadband, known as C3, the only locally-owned communications company in the Cayman Islands, is locked in a legal battle with the utilities regulator, OfReg, over CI$1,400,000 in unpaid fees. C3 believes the government hasn’t properly legislated to collect this coercive revenue from ICT firms, which it contends is a 6% tax on profits.
As a result, C3 stopped paying these royalty (or coercive) fees as well as the regulatory fees and has taken its fight to the courts because it says the tax is neither fair nor lawful.
The Grand Court initially refused C3’s application for a judicial review. But the company appealed, and last month, the Cayman Islands Appeal Court overturned that decision and granted the judicial review because “on the face of it, they are powerful arguments”, referring to C3’s contention that the legal regulations to provide for the fee collection are missing.
During the progress of this appeal, the government published and steered through the Information and Communications Technology (Validity) Bill, 2024 to “validate the charging, payment and collection of licence fees” by OfReg.
Under this law, licence fees charged and collected by the regulator before it was passed are also validated and taken to have been lawfully charged as if the licence fees had been prescribed in regulations, though there is an exception for existing proceedings such as this case.
The appeal court’s decision paves the way for a full judicial review of C3’s arguments about why it should not pay the fees. The JR is yet to be set on the court docket.
However, C3 has informed its customers that it expects a favourable decision based on the arguments that it does not need to pay the fees, and if so, it will pass the savings on to its customers, as it had passed these fees on to C3 users but has not paid OfReg.
“We pledge to our customers that if we win at trial we will offer to reimburse the 6% tax to all our customers through an account credit,” the company said in a notice to its customers.
“C3 is the only 100% Caymanian owned ICT provider in the Cayman Islands, and we are the only ICT company in the Cayman Islands defending the interests of its customers in this way. We will update you on the reimbursement to which you may be entitled following the outcome of these proceedings.”
However, OfReg has said that C3 is misleading its customers and has pointed out that some of the management and directors of C3 “are notable public figures”, as former premier Wayne Panton is a member of the board.
OfReg said it collects the 6% fee on behalf of the Cayman Islands Government. C3 has for many years billed its customers various fees as part of its provision of service. However, the regulator does not impose any obligation for those fees to be passed on to C3’s customers, and it was C3 that decided to do so, and it continues to collect them even though it is not paying OfReg.
OfReg is also arguing that the case is in court because of its efforts to collect the fees owed and that, given the condition of its licence, C3 has been aware of the need to pay for many years.
OfReg noted that the Court of Appeal had decided that C3’s claim is arguable and the company is therefore allowed to have its case heard. However, the court’s ruling made it clear it was not deciding on anything more than this, and that the outcome of the case should be determined by the Grand Court.
See the OfReg v. Infinity CICA judgment here.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
‘The fault here however really lies with OfReg, who are woefully under capacity in terms of intellectual horsepower for what they need to do.” This is really a profound statement, and may account for the lack of lack of industry reform with the former ICTA.
Didn’t Hurleys Entertainment/Cayman 27 also have a similar non-payment issue with the ICTA?
Typical Panton! Hell bent on not paying his company taxes and continues his fight against those who want to develop their land and make a few $$$. Seems like he is only concerned with his own pockets.
If you take a look at Case Number G 0098 OF 2023 on https://judicial.ky/unreported-judgments/ you’ll also see another case where C3 appears to not have been paying their fees.
rich coming from C3.
A) if you win, how are you going to pay back the former customers who you charged this to?
B) How about YOU credit customers for the incredible amount of downtime you have? Days and weeks without service but I still had to pay full price?! Glad I switched to Logic.
C3 is a terrible provider anyway. Surprised they have lasted this long
Lets face it.
It not rocket science to find a flaw on OfReg
1) StarLink
2) CUC
3) Water
and that’s before we even start on the telecom’s companies
Gas prices
Fart in a jar.
So, taking C3’s case at its highest, assuming that the correct regulations weren’t passed contemporaneously, what’s to stop MLAs now passing either:
1. Retrospective legislation to authorise the charges (a la Burmah Oil Company Ltd v Lord Advocate [1965] AC 75); or
2. Legislation rendering charges lawful henceforth, and providing a retrospective offset for fees previously paid unnecessarily (ie C3’s competitors get a discount, but C3 doesn’t because it didn’t pay).
In short, I don’t quite see how C3 wins this fight, but perhaps I’m missing something.
Even though C3 has NEVER paid the fee for years, C3 is STILL charging the fee from customers, who have to pay C3 bills for service. (or be disconnected)
But C3 is going to court because they don’t want to pay the fees they have been collecting from the customers for years lol
And say they will credit the customers back the $1.4 mil
C3 what are you smoking???!!!
Any other business would be shut down for none payment of any government fees!!
As a customer I would cancel my service with C3 IMMEDIATLY and I hope the court throws the book at them.
If only C3 were 100% committed to actually supplying reliable internet!
I’m fed up with service interruption emails, followed by crickets at any mention of discount applied to the account for the constant inconvenience.
C3 are the worst provider on island, by a very long way. They rely upon people’s inertia to keep customers. For your own sanity, move!
I recommend Logic, but I’m sure that Flow would also be exponentially better than C3.
No Flow will send you of the deep end of you ever need any customer service which you definitely will!
Ofreg charging to provide no service as usual. Focusing on gas prices when the real criminals are these phone companies.
C3, down once a week.
Flow, overcharges then refuses to refund money, only offering credits, which they then dont apply to bills.
Logic, cut your internet off a week before the due date on your bill and charge you a $25 reconnection fee.
All of them advertise and charge for speeds and provide 10-20% of what you pay for.
Criminals and ofreg not doing a damn thing but letting them steal from us.
I’m with Logic, and I’ve had no issues with service quality.
My only complaint would be that they raised charges for their basic tariff from CI$79 to CI$89 last year, and had the audacity to position it as an improvement simply because they also increased the speed. I did not – and do not – care about the speed. I simply want a basic internet service. The increase in speed was therefore merely a ruse to force customers onto a higher tariff. They are however still marginally the cheapest provided in Cayman.
The fault here however really lies with OfReg, who are woefully under capacity in terms of intellectual horsepower for what they need to do.
A comparative analysis of different international telecoms markets shows that, for example, the FCC in the US relies heavily on market forces to force consumer prices down, and Ofcom in the UK relies on highly-prescriptive regulations to require providers to both keep prices reasonable, and to provide very basic tariffs. For example, fiber internet-only, no TV and no telephone, in the UK is £25 / CI$25 per month or less, with Vodafone, Virgin, Gigaclear and BeFibre.
The US/FCC approach won’t work here, because there the market is insufficiently large for competition to force prices down. Robust regulatory action could however achieve that. Cayman internet providers charge $$$$$ because OfReg is incompetent and lets them get away with it.
Nothing will however happen because Caymanian politicians have their hand in the till. E.g. Panton with C3, or JonJon exploiting legions of minimum wage expats. They are in it for themselves. Cayman has no conflict of interest or campaign finance laws, and the political class comprises a tiny, inbred, anti-competitive gang of kleptocrats who exist solely to extract money from the wider population to enrich themselves. As the UK politicians Tony Benn famously said about power:
“What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?”
The quote encapsulates Benn’s belief in democratic accountability and his insistence that those in power should always be answerable to the people. Such accountability is however utterly alien in the Cayman Islands. Caymanian politicians have stitched up the system so that only a tiny coterie exercise power, and they do so purely for self enrichment.
Certain of their employees would not be allowed near my house!
They need that 1.4 to fix the constant issues they have with sound lag and a recurring need to restart boxes just to get any sound at all.
That $1.4 million has already been spent bobo.
Not at all. They’ve said it will be paid out to customers if they win!
Ah no. They said they would offer an account credit. What about those customers no longer with C3? Will they get a cheque? Highly unlikely!
And BTW what the hell is the Panton, the former Premier, doing on a private company board. Ethical strength of a Kit Kat bar. 😂
Yeah, Wayne “lent” it to Sabrina.
Has she repaid that short term bridge loan yet?