MTN files motion to dismiss Turkcell's US claim
On 2 July 2012, MTN Group (MTN) filed a motion to dismiss the case filed against it by the Turkish mobile phone operator Turkcell Iletisim AS (Turkcell) in a US federal court.
Turkcell's claim against MTN in the US is the latest of four legal claims Turkcell has launched (the two which have been decided so far both being unsuccessful) after it failed to secure the second GSM licence in Iran in 2005.
As stated in MTN's motion to dismiss, MTN contends that Turkcell's US claim is a legally insufficient restatement of a case that Turkcell has already tried and lost.
MTN's motion seeks the dismissal of Turkcell's US claim on the grounds that there is no proper basis for such a claim to be brought for three principal reasons.
First, the US court does not have jurisdiction over the subject matter of Turkcell's claim, because Turkcell has not alleged a violation of the law of nations as required under US law for the sort of claim Turkcell is seeking to bring in the US.