Virgin Media sues Irish scallop fishermen for $870,000 over alleged damage to undersea cable

Virgin Media Wholesale, which is owned by Virgin Media O2, blamed a fishing boat for damaging its undersea fiber optic cable nine years ago, several publications reported.

The group filed a €800,000 ($870,000) claim in the High Court of Ireland against the Irish fishing vessel MV The Lida Suzanna, which allegedly damaged a 219 km (136 mile) cable linking Dublin and Blackpool, in England.

The trawler was fishing for scallops, which involves dredging the seabed with heavy wire-framed nets, when it reportedly cut the Virgin cable in January 2015.

Virgin has two cables, Sirius South and Sirius North, connecting Ireland to the United Kingdom. One of them was damaged in the alleged incident, taking several days to repair while Virgin transferred operations to its other cable. The damage is believed to have slowed Internet speeds for Virgin users.

The 2015 incident forced Virgin Media to send its repair vessel Pierre de Fermat to repair the cable, Wired reported at the time.

A search of High Court cases shows that the case was first brought against The Lida Suzanna in 2018,

From the first day of testimony on Tuesday, the plaintiffs said the fishermen should have known about the cable based on industry-approved maps and the Irish Marine Atlas, the Irish Times reported.

He added that the owner failed to ensure that the captain and crew of the trawler were properly informed of the location of the submarine cables before carrying out their activities.

The defendants, however, are not giving in without a fight to Virgin Media's wholesale subsidiary, which generated £205 million ($262 million) in revenue in 2022.

Lawyers representing the trawler's owners say there is no evidence the ship is responsible for the damage. Irish Independent reports.

Even if it did, lawyers argue that any damage was Virgin's fault because it failed to take appropriate steps to bury or protect the cables. For this reason, the fishermen argue that Virgin Media contributed to the negligence of the damages.

The trawler redoubled its efforts, arguing that Virgin Media's failure to protect its cables in a “fishing zone established centuries ago” was particularly negligent and that it was not its responsibility to change its cable practices. fishing for Virgin.

Virgin is seeking an order for the sale of the trawler if necessary, Irish publications reported.

Fortune contacted the High Court of Ireland.

A representative for Virgin Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Virgin cannot be said to have friendly relations with Irish fishermen, having faced several legal disputes over damaged cables in the past.

In 2018, The Journal.ie reported that Virgin Media Wholesale was suing two different trawlers over damage to its cables that occurred years before. One of them appears to be the Lida Suzanna affair which began on Tuesday.

The other appears to have been against the trawler MV Willie Joe, but that case was settled in 2022.

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