MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s Supreme Court said on Tuesday more checks were needed to assess whether Telecom Italia had properly filed a claim to get back a 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) payment from the Italian state in a dispute over licence fees, sources told Reuters.
At a hearing, the Supreme Court told parties it needed to assess whether TIM’s initial claim was filed with the correct court and gave parties one month to file their arguments over the matter, sources said.
Telecom Italia declined to comment.
A Rome appeals court last year ordered the Italian government to return TIM the original licence fee of just over 500 million euros, plus a revaluation and accrued interest for a total of about 1 billion euros.
But the government filed an appeal against that decision with the Supreme Court, which typically takes 3-4 months before deciding on a case.
TIM and Rome have been locked in a legal dispute over license fees TIM was required to pay to the state in 1998, the year after the telecoms sector was deregulated.
($1 = 0.8800 euros)
(Reporting by Paolo Chiriatti, writing by Elvira Pollina, editing by Susan Fenton)
