EU sues over delays to border control biometrics

A trio of tech firms are facing a lawsuit from the EU's tech agency over delays to the border control system.

The Entry/Exit System (EES) automatically scans fingerprints and photographs to track non-EU citizens, rather than manually stamping passports in order to track the length of their stay.

The roll-out was delayed and once the technology was in place, beset by issues ranging from software glitches to fingerprint scanners failing when covered in sweat, leading to long queues at airports.

First reported by the Financial Times, the agency is now taking legal action against IBM Belgium, Atos Belgium, and Leonardo.

The FT reported that it had seen letters between the trio of tech firms and EU-LISA, the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems, suggesting the dispute goes back several years. The report stresses the suit is about delays in implementation, not the issues with its operation.

Letters show the tech companies accusing EU-LISA of "ignoring reality" over new deadlines, while financial reports from EU-LISA highlight ongoing difficulties with the EES consortium regarding costs and delays.

The contract value increased from €142m to €212m in 2021, with the annual budget also increasing.

Long-running delays

In its annual report last year, EU-LISA said it planned to take legal action against the trio of tech firms.

"Following the various delays in the delivery of the EES by a contracting consortium, the Agency activated the available contractual and legal remedies to protect its financial interest. In this respect, on 22 December 2025, a claim was submitted to the Estonian Court," the document noted.

"Given the early stages of the proceedings, no evaluation of the probability of the outcome can be reliably made at the moment."

The initial contract with the IBM-Atos-Leonardo consortium wasn't renewed last year, with Sword Systems, Netcompany, and Sopra Steria taking over this summer.

In a statement to ITPro, spokesperson for the agency confirmed it has begun legal proceedings against the trio of firms.

“eu-LISA confirms that legal proceedings have been initiated against the consortium, in line with the Agency’s responsibility to protect the EU’s financial interests,” the spokesperson said.

“As the proceedings are ongoing, we do not comment on the details of the case. The proceedings concern the system’s development phase and have no impact on its current operation. EES is fully operational.”

Anger from travel industry

The troubled roll-out of EES biometrics has led to long delays at airports for travellers leading to some travellers missing flights. The biometric system is particularly problematic for any travellers from outside the EU, including the UK.

Earlier this year, Portugal suspended EES temporarily after passengers faced seven hour queues at Lisbon airport, with nine countries later allowed to waive introducing EES until January until it is properly working.

Last month, ACI EUROPE and Airlines for Europe (A4E) noted that EES waiting times continued to reach up to five hours at peak times and often exceed two hours.

In September, when the EES was supposed to come into full force, Ryanair’s COO Neal McMahon called the EU’s handling of EES "a shambles from start to finish," and said "passengers should not be made [to] pay the price for the EU’s failed EES rollout."

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