Ljubljana - Slovenia's largest commercial TV channels, POP TV and Kanal A, have filed a counterclaim against Telekom Slovenije, claiming EUR 58.15 million in damages in compensation for what they claim the state-owned telecommunications services provider underpaid in distribution fee for TV channels since February 2017.

The counterclaim was lodged in response to the lawsuit filed against POP TV and Kanal A by the state-owned teleco late last year in a bid nullifying parts of the agreement under which it pays the broadcasters to include their programmes in its TV package. Telekom Slovenije claims EUR 12.4 million for what it says it paid in excess in distribution fee.

Telekom claims it has been paying unfair and excessive prices for POP TV and Kanal A programmes for years, which it says is the result of their abuse of dominant position on the wholesale TV programming market. The two broadcasters are part of the same media company Pro Plus.

It was Telekom which announced receiving the EUR 58.15 million counterclaim in a regulatory filing with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on Thursday. "The claim is said to represent the damage that the plaintiffs have said to have suffered as a result of insufficient payments for the distribution fee for TV channels in the period from 16 February 2017 to 31 March 2022," the post reads.

Telekom Slovenije said it would respond to the counterclaim within the legal deadline.