The EU's IT agency sued IBM, Atos and Leonardo over delays on a €212 million contract. It calls the system fully operational.
eu-LISA, the EU agency that runs its large IT systems for borders and security, filed the claim in an Estonian court on 22 December 2025, the Guardian reported on Monday.
IBM, Atos and Leonardo formed the consortium that built the Entry/Exit System, which photographs and fingerprints non-EU travellers.
The agency's annual accounts say it "activated the available contractual and legal remedies" after delays in delivery. It told the Guardian the case concerns the development phase and has "no impact on its current operation", and that the system "is fully operational".
Biometric Update, citing the Financial Times, put the consortium's central-system contract at €142 million at the start and €212 million by the end of development. In June the EU announced a four-year contract worth up to €93 million for that central system, to a group led by Sword Services.
The system launched in October 2025. Airports have reported malfunctioning kiosks and outages, with waits of three hours at peak times, the Guardian wrote. The agency says those are not what the case is about.
Atos declined to comment; no response from IBM or Leonardo was reported at publication.
The claim is civil and unresolved; no court has ruled. Within a year of the launch, the buyer sued the consortium that built the system and put its central part out to a different supplier.
Sources
Our file on IBM
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- 6 Nov
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- 22 Oct
IBM's CEO says open AI models work 90% as well as top models. Per token, they can cost a tenth.
- 9 Oct
IBM sold the contracts of hundreds of VMware customers. It did not answer questions.
For your next steering committee
- 1Ask which exit clauses your largest software and services contracts carry, and when each can be used.
- 2Ask what leaving would cost, in money and in months.
- 3Ask who reads the contract when a dispute starts, and whether they have read it before.
Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01
Welcome back. · Issue 01
