The Dutch city of Hilversum will pay Ziggo €4 million in damages following a dispute over the subscription fee for basic cable TV.
The damages payment is the result of a dispute between the city and UPC (now Ziggo) over the amount the operator could charge for its service.
Hilversum tried to keep the monthly fee as low as possible, but an Amsterdam court ruled in 2014 that the city could not hold back a tariff increase in Hilversum that UPC had been trying to push through since 2004.
The Amsterdam court ruling followed an opinion from the EU Court in 2013 that the city had no authority to intervene in pricing, only an independent regulator could do so.
Ziggo has pledged to invest the amount it receives in local projects in care, education and media and deploying a public Wi-Fi network.
The operator will now start to charge its customers in Hilversum the same amount as in the rest of the country.
