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P&O Ferries seeks almost £33 million government compensation
Court papers reveal P&O Ferries is seeing almost £33 million in damages from the government, which awarded a similar amount to Eurotunnel in an out of court settlement after the latter sued the Department for Transport for handing contracts to three ferry operators to provide additional capacity post-Brexit.
P&O also wants the courts to cancel the DfT’s settlement with Eurotunnel, which it claims amounts to illegal state aid.
The DfT agreed to pay Eurotunnel £33 million after the
cross-Channel rail operator sued the government for handing contracts to DFDS, Brittany Ferries and a ship-less Seaborne Freight to provide additional capacity between the UK and continental Europe in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Eurotunnel had argued that it should have been invited to bid for the contracts, one of which was cancelled after Seaborne’s financial backers pulled out and the two others were cancelled after Britain’s departure from the EU was delayed until October 31.
In an out of court settlement with the government, Eurotunnel agreed to spend some of the £33 million upgrading its facilities at Folkestone.
P&O is arguing that this amounts to a public contract, and that the £33 million settlement ‘was not, and could not be, a genuine estimate of Eurotunnel’s alleged losses’.
The ferry operator’s lawyers claim that such an agreement, which includes building work, ‘could only lawfully have been entered into following a duly advertised and competitive tender process’.
P&O is also seeking a judicial review into the actions of the DfT and claims that the settlement amounts to a subsidy for Eurotunnel. The DfT claims it has acted lawfully.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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