15 December 2022

The ten-year legal battle between MTN Group and Turkcell over the acquisition of a mobile license in Iran has now ended. A claim filed by Turkcell in the Johannesburg High Court in 2013 in connection with the case was dismissed with costs on 30 November.

The legal proceedings were launched in November 2013 by Turkcell and its subsidiary East Asian Consortium (EAC) after the failure of a first attempt launched in 2012 before the Federal Court in Washington. MTN was accused of acts of corruption in the process of acquiring the first private network operator license in Iran in 2004. Turkcell, which was also in the running, claimed financial compensation of US$4.2 billion in damages.

In November 2020, Turkcell withdrew as plaintiff from the case, leaving EAC as sole plaintiff in the action against MTN in South Africa.

Following the Johannesburg High Court’s ruling, MTN said it was “delighted with this outcome, as it has always maintained that the Turkcell litigation is without merit.”