The European Union has sued IBM, French IT firm Atos and Italian defence company Leonardo over prolonged delays in developing its new biometric border system.
This was disclosed in a report by the Financial Times on Monday.
The lawsuit was filed by eu-LISA, the EU agency responsible for managing large-scale information technology systems for border control and security.
According to the agency’s annual accounts published in July, the case was instituted in Estonia in December 2025, where eu-LISA is headquartered.
However, no court hearings have taken place or been scheduled.
The dispute centres on the European Union’s Entry/Exit System (EES), which captures the fingerprints and photographs of non-EU travellers when they first enter the Schengen area, comprising 29 countries.
The system is designed to identify visitors who overstay their authorised period of stay or are flagged by law enforcement authorities.
Initially scheduled to launch in 2022, the EES became fully operational in April 2026, following several years of delays. Its rollout was also marred by technical difficulties, including faulty fingerprint scanners that contributed to long queues at European airports during the summer.
However, eu-LISA stated that the legal dispute had “no impact on the functioning of the Entry/Exit System, which is fully operational across Europe”.
The European Commission said the lawsuit relates to delays encountered during the system’s development.
In 2019, eu-LISA awarded IBM, Atos and Leonardo a €142m contract to develop the core infrastructure for the biometric border system, according to earlier reports.
The contract value was subsequently increased to €212m in 2021.
