Dec 16 (Reuters) - Vodafone has been served with a250 million euro ($343.26 million) lawsuit for allegedlybreaching its contracts and causing harm to a Greek retailpartner, the Financial Times reported late on Sunday.
The FT, citing claims it had seen, said that Vodafone Greecelast week received details of the civil lawsuit from MTS, alocal telecoms retailer that sold Vodafone contracts andservices in the country. ()
MTS, in which the British telecoms group owns a 40 percentstake, claimed that Vodafone restricted its ability to operatethrough the cancellation of a loan restructuring and thetermination of a co-operation agreement involving maintenanceservices and loan contracts, the Financial Times said.
MTS also claimed that it was prevented from listing on theAthens stock exchange by Vodafone, which exploited its economicdependence on the British group.
"The claims are without merit and the purported lossescompletely fanciful. Vodafone will be defending themvigorously," Vodafone told the Financial Times.
MTS and Vodafone could not be reached for further commentoutside of regular business hours.
Vodafone, the second-biggest operator in Greece behindDeutsche Telekom's Cosmote, was also servedwith the documents in London, the paper said on its website.
It added that the court hearing had been set for April 2016.