PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union Court of Justice said on Wednesday it had dismissed German satellite company OHB System’s complaint about a contract awarded to competitors Thales and Airbus to supply new satellites for Europe’s Galileo programme.
Following a 2018 European Space Agency (ESA) tender for next-generation satellites for the Galileo global navigation satellite system, the European Commission in 2021 selected Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space Italia, rejecting a bid by its traditional supplier OHB System, which has built most of Galileo’s current operating satellites.
OHB System had asked the Commission and ESA to suspend the tender after its former chief operating officer (COO) was hired by Airbus and asked for Airbus to be excluded from the tender, which the Commission rejected in January 2021.
The court said the allegation that the COO hiring would have given Airbus an unfair advantage was vague and hypothetical, and it also ruled that the Commission was not required to conduct an investigation into those allegations.
An OHB spokesperson said the company could not immediately comment.
(Reporting by GV De Clercq; Editing by Mark Potter)
