HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A lawsuit filed by the Office of the Attorney General accusing GTA Teleguam of violating the Deceptive Trade Practices Act was dismissed with prejudice.
In 2021, under then-Attorney General Leevin Camacho, the AG’s office filed a lawsuit against Teleguam Holdings LLC, doing business as GTA, alleging GTA made customers pay a business privilege tax and created a false impression the mandatory surcharge is to be paid by customers.
GTA, in response, denied the charges and countersued the AG’s office on the basis the “lawsuit was groundless and brought in bad faith and for the purpose of harassment,” according to a release issued by GTA attorney Anita Arriola.
Arriola said the lawsuit stemmed from two complaints filed by a different telecommunications provider.
“During the lawsuit, GTA discovered that the telecommunications provider filed false complaints against GTA, including one filed by its employee, who was a GTA customer and who was directed by the competitor’s legal counsel to file a complaint even though he had no personal knowledge of the statements he made in the complaint,” Arriola said in a news release announcing the suit and countersuits had been dismissed with prejudice.
On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Frank Gumataotao told The Guam Daily Post the case was dismissed as a result of a stipulation between GTA and the AG’s office and because, “in the end, the consumer was made whole.”
“Once the parties had agreed to do what was done, there was no need to go forward. … It’d be a waste of public resources for us to keep litigating when, in the end, it’s not going to be different than what we’ve already agreed to,” Gumataotao said.
He said the next step would involve parties meeting in court and a judge allowing the dismissal.
Dan Tydingco, GTA executive vice president for legal and regulatory affairs, added in the release that the lawsuit never should have been filed because it had no merit.
“GTA did not and does not engage in deceptive trade practices. This lawsuit should never have been filed in the first place. It was based upon false claims made by a competitor and filed without any proper investigation of the facts,” said Tydingco, who thanked the AG’s office for dismissing the case with prejudice.
The seal of the Office of the Attorney General of Guam is shown May 4, 2023, in Tamuning.
GTA Teleguam headquarters in Upper Tumon is shown June 6, 2023.
