Czech court in Brno to hear EDF lawsuit over antitrust office ruling on nuclear tender

The Regional Court in Brno will today hear a lawsuit filed by French company EDF against a ruling by the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) on a tender to build new units at the Dukovany nuclear power plant. The authority said the tender was conducted properly.

In connection with the lawsuit, the court issued a preliminary injunction in early May banning the signing of a contract with the tender winner. However, the Supreme Administrative Court overturned it at the request of the project’s contracting authority, Elektrárna Dukovany II (EDU II), and the tender winner, KHNP. The two companies therefore signed the contract on 4 June.

The antitrust authority examined the contract for several months. Both unsuccessful bidders—French company EDF and US company Westinghouse—filed objections to the selection of their competitor. They questioned the Korean company’s right to use the technology it had offered and the transparency of the process. EDF specifically argued that the Foreign Subsidies Regulation had been breached. Both companies also said the contracting authority had acted unlawfully, arguing, among other things, that it had failed to comply with the basic principles of public procurement, particularly in connection with the selection of the preferred supplier. The ÚOHS dismissed the objections, and Mlsna dismissed EDF’s appeal on 24 April. Westinghouse withdrew its appeal.

The ruling by the Regional Court in Brno will not affect the contract itself for the construction of two nuclear units at Dukovany. However, if EDF were to win and the ÚOHS and the courts were to find that there had been errors in the tender, it could seek compensation from the contracting authority.

The first unit at Dukovany is expected to be completed in 2036. The construction of new nuclear units in Czechia is expected to be the country’s largest-ever contract. At current prices, the cost of the currently preferred option of building two reactors at Dukovany is 407 billion crowns.