Channel Tunnel Group and France-Manche are suing the UK government over contracts awarded to ferry firms in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
The two, which operate Eurotunnel, have accused the UK of a “secretive and flawed procurement exercise” that aimed to secure routes outside of the busy Dover-Calais corridor, the companies' lawyer Daniel Beard said in court on Monday, according to Bloomberg.
The contracts were awarded without a publicised tender and relied on “extreme urgency provisions,” court filings alleged.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said, however, that the government had carried out a “competitive procurement process to secure additional ferry capacity between the UK and the EU, which is in line with proper procedures.”
A four-day high court trial will start on 1 March.
The news comes days after the UK scrapped a £13.8m ($17.6m) contract with Seaborne Freight to operate from Ramsgate. The company infamously had no ships at the time of the award at the end of last year
France’s Brittany Ferries will receive £46.6m to add more services in the western Channel and Denmark’s DFDS £42.5m to expand to the east.
The Department of Transport said it had decided to terminate the contract after Ireland's Arklow Shipping, which was said to have backed Seaborne Freight, stepped away from the deal.
Arklow told The Guardian newspaper that it never had an agreement with Seaborne, but was merely a potential investor.
