CCJ Upholds Government’s LPG Market Reforms

We continue to follow the conclusion of a high-profile LPG case that’s been years in the making. The Caribbean Court of Justice has delivered its judgment, and the ruling clears the way for the government’s reorganization of Belize’s LPG market. What does that mean? Instead of multiple importers, the system now allows one main importer and local distributors, a structure the court says is constitutionally sound. Here’s the key point you need to know: the government no longer faces that massive sixty-million-dollar claim from private gas companies. Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay explains why this decision matters and what it means for the industry moving forward.

 

Eamon Courtenay, Senior Counsel

“We now know, as a fact, one, that the legislation is constitutionally compliant. The way in which the market has been reorganized, from the mass importation by many retailers into one retailer and thereafter distribution within the country, that has now been validated by the court, and the market can be organized in that way. And the government no longer faces any liability. As I mentioned, they were exposed to a claim in excess of sixty million dollars. That is no longer a valid claim. And so, one thing I should add is that all the while that the gas companies were claiming that not only did they lose money, their goodwill had been acquired by the government, they continued to carry on business and I think one of the central rulings of the court was, you can’t continue to carry on business and say you have lost your goodwill. If you still exist and you’re carrying on business, you have your goodwill. It may have been diminished, it may have been affected, but you have not lost it.”