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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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EU court rejects claim Airbus won satellite contract by hiring exec from rival

The European General Court found there is not enough evidence to warrant investigating whether the aerospace giant won a major satellite contract by hiring a top executive from a rival company.

(CN) — A European Union court on Wednesday ruled there was insufficient evidence to warrant deeper scrutiny into allegations Airbus hired a chief rival's top executive and obtained information that helped it win a massive contract to build a new fleet of satellites.

The General Court, the EU's second-highest chamber, dismissed a case brought by the German space company OHB System against the European Commission's decision to not investigate its allegations against Airbus, a European aerospace and defense giant. The full judgment was not immediately available in English.

The case involves about 1.5 billion euros (about $1.6 billion) in contracts the European Space Agency awarded in 2021 to build six new satellites for the EU's Galileo global navigation system.

In January 2021, the EU gave the work to Airbus Defense and Space and Italian firm Thales Alenia Space Italia. Airbus won a contract for about 699.5 euros (about $774 million) and Thales Alenia got one for about 772 million euros (about $854 million).

But OHB alleged Airbus got an unfair edge after it hired OHB's chief operating officer in December 2019. The German company asked the European Commission to investigate its allegations and suspend the contract.

OHB pointed out that a criminal investigation had been opened into whether its former executive had handed over sensitive company information about its Galileo bid to Airbus.

In its ruling, the court found OHB provided only “vague and hypothetical” details to substantiate its allegations that Airbus obtained sensitive information about the Galileo bid. The court noted the former OHB executive was hired before OHB submitted its third and final bid.

The decision can be appealed to the European Court of Justice, the EU's top court.

OHB, a major aerospace company based in Bremen, did not reply to a query seeking comment. Airbus declined to comment.

Airbus says the satellites it is building are designed to last 15 years and that they will improve the accuracy of Galileo, send out stronger signals and be better protected from threats such as jamming and spoofing, which involves hacking a satellite and getting it to emit false data.

The new satellites will be outfitted with cutting-edge equipment such as digitally configurable antennas, inter-satellite links, new atomic clock technologies and fully electric propulsion systems.

They were scheduled to begin being launched next year.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau
Categories / Business, Government, International, Technology

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