EU sues IBM, Atos and Leonardo over border system delays; firms blame Covid-19
The European Union has filed a lawsuit against IBM, Atos, and Leonardo due to significant delays in the development of the Entry/Exit System (EES). The biometric border control project, originally slated for 2022, has faced technical failures and implementation issues.
Why it matters
The legal dispute highlights the challenges of managing large-scale, cross-border digital infrastructure projects and the accountability of private contractors in public sector technology.
The European Union’s border technology agency has sued IBM, France’s biggest IT company Atos and Italy’s Leonardo over repeated delays in developing its Entry/Exit System (EES). According to a report in the Financial Times, citing internal communications, EU-Lisa, which oversees the system, filed the lawsuit in Estonia in December 2025 after the consortium missed delivery deadlines and challenged warnings and financial penalties, according to the report.The biometric border system was originally due to launch in 2022 but reached full rollout only this year. Its introduction has been marked by technical problems and hours-long airport queues across Europe during the summer.Project derailed by hardware and software glitchesThe EES requires travellers from outside the bloc to register fingerprints and photographs when first entering the Schengen area. It is designed to help authorities identify visa overstayers and people wanted by law enforcement.
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