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Telecom Italia (TIM) said Italy’s highest court had ruled in its favor in a long-running concession fee case, confirming the group is owed just over 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to end a dispute that has dragged on for over two decades.
In a statement on Saturday, the former phone monopoly confirmed what sources had earlier told Reuters.
The reimbursement of the concession fee is expected to unlock a long-awaited plan to convert TIM’s savings shares into ordinary stock and help the cash-starved company resume dividend payments, which it halted in 2022.
The conversion could already be discussed at a board meeting TIM is expected to hold on Dec. 29, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The dispute stems from the liberalization of Italy’s telecoms sector. TIM sued the state to recover the licence fee it was required to pay in 1998, the year after the sector was deregulated.
A lower court had ordered Italy’s government to pay the sum to TIM, but Rome had appealed that decision.
The amount TIM is entitled to based on the Supreme Court’s decision is roughly double the original licence fee, worth slightly more than 500 million euros, due to revaluation and accrued interest.
Italy’s Treasury declined to comment, while the prime minister’s office was not immediately available to comment.
The ruling is not expected to significantly affect Italy’s efforts to cut its budget deficit below 3% of national output, because the government has already set aside 2.2 billion euros in its 2026 budget to cover national and European Union litigation costs.
The payout gives CEO Pietro Labriola funds to press ahead with a long-standing plan to scrap TIM’s dual-class share structure and phase out costly savings shares.
These shares, which guarantee a minimum dividend, account for about 28% of TIM’s capital.
