Cap. 418 Art. 44AResolution of cross-border disputes.

(1) In the event of a dispute arising under any law or decision which the Authority is entitled to enforce, involving undertakings in more than one Member State, a person may request the

Authority to co-ordinate its efforts with any relevant regulatory authority in another Member State with a view to bringing about a resolution of the dispute.

(2) In addition to sub-article (1), a dispute arising under the Electronic Communications (Regulation) Act or the Electronic Communications Code between undertakings in different Member States, where the dispute lies within the competence of the Authority and national regulatory authorities from other Member States, that dispute shall be subject to the following:

(a) any person may refer such a dispute to the Authority, and where the dispute affects trade between Malta and other Member States, the Authority shall notify the dispute to BEREC in order to bring about a consistent resolution of the dispute in accordance with the objectives set out in article 4 of the Electronic Communications (Regulation)

Act. In doing so the Authority shall await the opinion of BEREC subsequent to the notification before taking any action to resolve the dispute: Provided that in exceptional circumstances where there is an urgent need to act, in order to safeguard competition or protect the interests of end-users, the Authority may, either at the request of any person to the dispute or of its own initiative, adopt interim measures:

(b) where the Authority makes a determination for the purposes of resolving a dispute under this article, the provisions of article 43 shall, where applicable, apply: Provided further that the Authority when imposing any obligations on an undertaking in resolving a dispute shall abide with the provisions of the Electronic Communications Code, and shall take the utmost account of the opinion adopted by BEREC taken in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 27 of the Electronic Communications Code, which opinion shall be adopted within thirty days.

(3) The procedure referred to in this article does not preclude a person to the dispute from bringing an action before the courts or any other competent adjudicative forum.

(4) The provisions of this article shall not apply to disputes relating to radio spectrum coordination covered by Part V of the

Electronic Communications (Regulation) Act.